Menetrier's disease. Effect of medical and surgical vagotomy.

A 62-year-old woman with incapacitating atherosclerotic vascular occlusive disease was found to have severe hypoproteinemia as a result of Menetrier's disease. That diagnosis was suspected on roentgenographic and gastroscopic examinations and confirmed by examination of full-thickness surgical gastric biopsy specimens. The protein loss from the stomach was significantly decreased by treatment with trimethaphan and atropine and led us to perform proximal gastric vagotomy at the time of endarterectomy. Subsequent protein turnover studies suggest that there has been a significant decrease in protein loss by the stomach. Further evaluation of the possible role of medical and surgical vagotomy in this disease seems warranted.