Subtotal Gastrectomy With Billroth II Anastomosis Is Associated With a Low Risk of Ischemic Stroke in Peptic Ulcer Disease Patients: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

Duodenal diversion can ameliorate lipid and glucose metabolism. We assessed the risk of stroke after subtotal gastrectomy with Billroth II anastomosis (SGBIIA) in peptic ulcer disease (PUD). We identified 6425 patients who received SGBIIA for PUD between 1998 and 2010 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database as the study cohort; we frequency-matched them with 25,602 randomly selected controls from the PUD population who did not receive SGBIIA according to age, sex, index year, and comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and obesity. All patients were followed until the end of 2011 to determine the incidence of stroke. The incidence of stroke was lower in patients in the SGBIIA cohort than in those in the non-SGBIIA cohort (18.9 vs 22.9 per 1000 person-years, adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.80, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.72-0.89, P < 0.001). The risk of ischemic stroke (aHR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69-0.86, P < 0.001), rather than hemorrhagic stroke (aHR 1.00, 95% CI 0.78-1.28), was lower for the SGBIIA cohort than for the non-SGBIIA cohort according to the multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. The relative risk of ischemic stroke after SGBIIA was lower in men (aHR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69-0.86) than in women (aHR 0.80, 95% CI 0.65-0.99) and in patients aged ≥65 years (aHR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63-0.81) than in those of other age groups (≤49 years, aHR 0.82, 95% CI 0.48-1.39; 50-64 years, aHR 1.01, 95% CI 0.79-1.28). The relative risk of ischemic stroke after SGBIIA was also reduced in patients with comorbidities (aHR 0.84, 5% CI 0.75-0.95) rather than in those without comorbidities (aHR 0.81, 95% CI 0.59-1.12). SGBIIA is associated with a low risk of ischemic stroke for PUD patients, and its protective effect is prominent in men, patients aged ≥65 years, and those with comorbidities.