Pylorus-preserving gastrectomy with radical lymph node dissection based on anatomical variations of the infrapyloric artery.

We devised a method for performing pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (PPG) with radical lymph node dissection without compromising pyloric blood flow, based on vascular anatomical evaluation of 210 celiac angiograms. The origin of the infrapyloric artery was variable, but consistently supplied blood flow to the pylorus and the posterior wall of the antrum. When the infrapyloric artery originated from the gastroduodenal artery or from one of its pancreatic branches (type A, 88%), the right gastroepiploic artery was divided at its origin, allowing the excision of all adjacent lymph nodes. When the infrapyloric artery originated from the right gastroepiploic artery (type B, 12%), the right gastroepiploic artery was divided distal to the infrapyloric artery origin and the short right gastroepiploic artery remnant was skeletonized of lymph nodes. We have used this technique to perform PPG on 25 patients with early gastric cancer in the middle third of the stomach with minimal morbidity and no mortality.