Palliative gastrojejunostomy for advanced carcinoma of the stomach.

The outcome of 51 patients who underwent gastrojejunostomy for unresectable gastric cancer with outlet obstruction was studied to evaluate the palliative benefit. The operative mortality and postoperative complication rates were 22% and 55% respectively. The mean duration of postoperative hospital stay was 13 days and median survival period 14 weeks. Delayed gastric emptying occurred in 21%, mostly in patients with extensive tumour involvement of the stomach and was associated with a poor outcome. Among the survivors, 87.5% were able to take a soft diet by the eighth postoperative day and 60% could cope with the progression of the disease at home. We conclude that gastrojejunostomy offers satisfactory palliation in patients with advanced gastric cancer.