Roux-Y gastrectomy for chronic gastric atony.

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical outcome after Roux-Y gastrectomy for chronic gastric atony. Forty patients (11 men, 29 women; age 47 +/- 12 years) presented with severe chronic gastric atony: 32 patients had postvagotomy atony, 6 had idiopathic atony, and 2 had diabetic gastroparesis. The patients underwent either extensive subtotal or near-total gastrectomy and Roux-Y gastrojejunostomy. No early postoperative mortality occurred. Among the 39 patients followed for a mean of 32 months, 31 patients (79 percent) had fewer symptoms postoperatively than preoperatively, with 26 patients (66 percent) improving at least one Visick grade postoperatively and 22 patients (56 percent) going from grades III and IV preoperatively to grades I and II postoperatively. In contrast, 13 patients (33 percent) did not improve after operation. We concluded that extensive subtotal Roux-Y gastrectomy and near-total Roux-Y gastrectomy were safe procedures that led to improvement in two-thirds of the patients with chronic gastric atony; however, one-third of patients did not have improvement.