Gastric atony and the Roux syndrome

Abstract

The Roux limb syndrome is a symptom complex characterized by chronic postprandial epigastric pain, fullness, and vomiting observed in approximately one third of patients after gastric reconstructive surgery for reflux gastritis and other conditions in which vagotomy and Roux-en-Y gastroenterostomy have been preformed. The etiology of the symptom complex is controversial, with experimental evidence in animal and human studies suggesting dysfunction of both the gastric remnant and the Roux limb itself. Medical treatment is successful in only about half of cases, but surgical treatment to remove most or all of the gastric remnant is usually successful. These observations suggest that most of the symptoms of the Roux limb syndrome arise from postvagotomy gastric atony.