Gastric exclusion for unresectable gastric cancer

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Conventional gastrojejunostomy is sometimes performed for unresectable gastric cancer, but it is not fully effective. To improve the patient's quality of life, we performed gastric exclusion. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-seven patients who received gastrojejunostomy (11 conve ntional, 16 gastric exclusion) were retrospectively examined as to post-ope rative quality of life and outcome. RESULTS: No stomal strictures were observed, and gastrointestinal bleeding was significantly reduced in the gastric exclusion group. These advantages enabled the gastric exclusion group to achieve better quality of life, as i ndicated by longer oral intake (244 days vs. 98 days) and home stay (211 da ys vs. 91 days). The prognosis also improved. The 50% survival period in th e gastric exclusion group was 229 days, whereas, that of the conventional g astrojejunostomy group was 131 days. CONCLUSIONS: The quality of life and prognosis of the gastric exclusion gro up significantly improved, and we believe that the improvement of the quali ty of life yielded a better prognosis. We recommend gastric exclusion as a standard procedure for unresectable gastric cancer.