Recurrent ulcer after gastric surgery--prevention and management based on a local experience

This paper reports a personal experience in the management of 45 patients with recurrent ulcer after gastric surgery. Inadequate acid reduction was the major cause of ulcer recurrence and treatment was by further acid reduction. Revisional surgery was performed in 23 patients (including a patient with a gastro-jejuno-colic fistula) with one mortality. Preliminary results of therapy with histamine H2-receptor antagonists have been encouraging and there appears to be a reduced need for re-operation in these patients in recent years. Less common causes of ulcer recurrence include retained suture material (2 cases) and the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (2 cases). The incidence of post-surgical ulcer recurrence may be reduced by: improved surgical techniques, particularly in the performance of vagotomy, and avoidance of operations without acid reducing procedures e.g., gastro-jejunostomy without vagotomy; wider use of emergency ulcer curative surgery for perforated peptic ulcer. Experience at two local centres has been that this is a safe procedure in selected patients, there being no mortality in 58 cases. Routine screening of peptic ulcer patients for the Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome by measuring the serum gastrin level facilitates early diagnosis of the condition, thus forestalling gastric surgery and the inevitable recurrent ulceration.