CHANGES IN THE CHEMISTRY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE STOMACH FOLLOWING GASTRIC OPERATIONS

Abstract

Surgeons advocating radical operation (Lewisohn1and de Takata2) and even those advocating conservative methods (Portis and Portis3) in the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers agree that gastrectomy produces a lower acidity or an anacidity in the contents of the stomach. The mechanism concerned in bringing about this change, however, is a subject of controversy. Deaver and Reimann4stated that the resection of the antrum does away with the area of the stomach mucosa that secretes acid. This is contrary to anatomic and physiologic facts. The antrum is lined by pyloric glands which contain no, or only a few, acid cells (Steinberg5). These glands secrete only an alkaline form of mucus (Babkin6). The relation of the mucosa of the antrum to the secretion of gastric juice was first called to our attention by Edkins.7This investigator found that extracts of the mucosa of