The relationship of anaemia to gastric secretion more than 15 years after vagotomy and gastro-enterostomy

Abstract

Iron deficiency anaemia is common following vagotomy and gastro-enterostomy, and this study has shown that all the anaemic patients had low gastric secretion. After correction of their anaemia, gastric secretion was increased, but was still very low, and when these levels were compared with secretion in fit non-anaemic patients it was found that the latter group had a significantly higher secretion, and that a high proportion of them showed evidence of incomplete vagotomy. These results suggest that there is a relationship between the levels of gastric secretion in patients after vagotomy and gastro-enterostomy and the development pf anaemia. It may be that inadequate gastric secretion impairs the release of elemental iron from the diet and its subsequent absorption.