[Balance studies after gastrectomy, with particular reference to the risk factors for coronary heart disease (author's transl)].

Balance studies in 15 patients who had undergone gastrectomy between 1957 and 1966 at the Heidelberg Surgical Hospital confirmed the suggestions in the literature that gastrectomied patients showed a reduced incidence of ischemic myocardiac diseases because of their altered living habits in relation to their age group. Consequently a gastrectomy is associated with a protective effect against the development of coronary heart disease, with underweight and hypotension having a particularly positive effect. This observation is not contradictory to the opinion that increased frequency of severe arteriosclerosis is supposed to be demonstrable in ulcer patients, because total and subtotal gastrectomies were carried out because of carcinoma.