Postoperative Quality of Life for Patients Underwnet Gastrectomy -In Relation to Preservsed Vagus Nerve with Complaints-

Yuichi Takayama, Shigekazu Ohyama, Keiichiro Ohta, Toshiharu Yamaguchi, Takashi Takahashi, Toshihusa Nakajima and Tetsuichiro Mutoh

Department of Surgery, Cancer Institute Hospital

We evaluated the postoperative function of vagus nerve preserving gastrectomy for early gastric cancer to relieve postoperative sequelae and improve quality of life (QOL) by mesans of questionnaires and glukagon test. Patients who underwent distal gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection were divided into 2 groups: vagus-preserved and vagus-sectioned. The difference in the concentration of c-peptide at 6 min after glukagon injection between preoperation and postoperation was significant in the vagus-sectioned group (2.87±0.39), compared to the vagus-preserved group (1.12±0.265). The occurrence of postoperative diarrhea was 4% in the vagus-preserved group and 16.3% in the vagus-sectioned group (P<0.03). We evaluated patient problems assigning a score. In the vagus-sectioned group, diarrhea was the most unpleasant symptom. We presumed that the rate of diarrhea was reduced by vagus-preserved. These results suggest that we must work to preserve the vagus nerve in surgery for early gastric cancer.

Key words
gastric cancer, vagus nerve, c-peptide, quality of life

Reprint requests
Yuichi Takayama Department of Surgery, Japanese Red Cross Nagoya 1st Hospital 3-35 Michishita-cho, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, JAPAN

Accepted
July 24, 2002

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