The postoperative stomach as seen clinically and experimentally

Using standard operative procedures such as gastrectomies, gastroenterostomies, and pyloroplasties, it was shown in dogs that gastritis occurred at the stoma. Because this gastritis disappeared histologically, or failed to occur at all when reflux was prevented by a Roux-en-Y reconstruction, it is suggested that the cause of the gastritis is duodenal content refluxing through the new stoma. In human subjects after operation it was also shown that gastritis persisted in spite of symptomatic improvement. Regeneration was studied in mice using tritiated thymidine administered on a single occasion only. Gastritis was induced by exposure to sublethal doses of irradiation. As gastric regeneration occurred some 10% of new chief and parietal cells were found to contain tritiated thymidine, suggesting that at least this number were derived from the parent mucus neck cells.