Gastric complications after radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease and other lymphomas.

Six patients who originally received radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease or primary gastric lymphoma developed radiation injury of the stomach requiring surgical management. Only two of these patients had evidence of gastric neoplastic involvement at the time of treatment. Experience with these patients leads us to draw the following conclusions: (1) Symptoms of radiation injury mimic those of recurrent neoplastic disease. (2) The effects of radiation are progressive and may be resistant to medical management. (3) The indications for surgical management include perforation, hemorrhage, obstruction, intractable pain, fistula formation, and inability to rule out recurrence. (4) Parenteral hyperalimentation can be an important adjunct in preparing debilitated patients for operation. (5) Gastric resection with gastrojejunostomy is the preferred operation. (6) Frozen section examination can be useful in determining the proper level of resection.