Causes and clinical significance of gastritis following Billroth II resection for duodenal ulcer.

Billroth II resection was carried out in 1000 duodenal ulcer patients in the period 1948-1956. Twenty-two to thirty years later, gastroscopy and biopsy was performed in 196 of 423 survivors. Chronic atrophic gastritis appeared in 93 per cent of the cases, 47 per cent showed slight and 46 per cent severe changes. Seven per cent had normal mucosa. The microscopic grade of gastritis proved to be independent of age, alcohol and tobacco consumption and serum gastrin. No correlation between clinical status, such as dumping, diarrhoea, vomiting and pain, haematological parameters and the microscopic grade of gastritis, could be found. It is suggested that gastritis might be caused by reflux of bile, pancreatic and intestinal juices, and that postgastrectomy symptoms and anaemia do not depend on the microscopic grade of gastritis.