Experiences with the treatment of alkaline reflux gastritis

Between 1973 and 1978, we have treated 34 patients with alkaline reflux gastritis. All but one had a history of prior gastric surgery. Ten patients had severe diarrhea due to dumping or vagotomy or both. Eleven of the patients had undergone 17 unsuccessful remedial operations. Except for one patient whose gastrojejunostomy was dismantled and two patients who had interposition of a Henle loop between the stomach and the duodenum, all the patients were managed by construction of a 40 cm Roux-en-Y limb. In 10 patients with diarrhea, a 7 to 8 cm antiperistaltic segment was positioned 80 cm distal to the stomach. Ancillary procedures such as vagotomy and Hill hiatal hernia repair were done in some of the patients. Bile gastritis was well controlled by the 40 cm Roux limb. The short reversed segment placed 80 cm from the stomach effectively controlled diarrhea whether it was due to dumping or vagotomy and did not cause any of the problems of gastric stasis that we and others have observed with reversed segments positioned next to the stomach.