Intermittent gastric dilatation after gastropexy in a dog.

Gastroperitoneal adhesions, which developed after tube gastrostomy in a 3-year-old dog, caused an inverted L configuration of the pyloric antrum and duodenum, resulting in periodic episodes of gastric dilatation. The dog had undergone tube gastrostomy for treatment of gastric dilatation/volvulus, but gastropexy adhesions broke down 27 months later, necessitating a second pexy procedure. Adhesions then developed, constricting gastric outflow and trapping gas in the stomach and proximal duodenum. When the ventral row of adhesions was surgically dissected, the angle between the pyloric antrum and the duodenum was straightened, facilitating flow of digesta. Gastropexy rarely causes the degree of adhesion formation and the complications reported in this dog.