[Postgastrectomy syndromes with special reference to reflux esophagitis].

60 patients without suspicion of recurrence of stomach cancer have had a follow-up by mean of 65 months after the procedure of a total gastrectomy. In 16 cases an additional esophagomanometric and endoscopic-bioptic examination was performed. Up to 1975 the operative procedure of stomach replacement was a jejunal interposition, afterwards the technique of a jejunoplicationn. Clinical signs of an esophageal reflux were found in one half of the patients with a jejunoplicatio and in a third of the cases with a jejunal interposition. Endoscopic-bioptic evidence of a reflux-esophagitis has been found in 13 of 16 patients. A functioning sphincter mechanism of the lower esophagus could be demonstrated in 5 of 16 cases. There was no proof of a correlation between the results of endoscopic-bioptic and manometric examinations. A prevention or reduction of esophageal reflux is as well possible by the technique of jejunal interposition as by jejunoplication.