What is Gastrectomy?
Gastrectomy is surgical removal of part or all of the stomach, the muscular pouch that receives food from the oesophagus and starts digestion. In cancer care it is done to take out the tumour with a margin of stomach and, where indicated, regional lymph nodes, then restore a path from oesophagus to small bowel. Partial or distal gastrectomy leaves a remnant of stomach. Subtotal gastrectomy leaves a smaller remnant. Total gastrectomy removes the entire stomach; the oesophagus is then joined to jejunum. Proximal gastrectomy, when used, removes the upper stomach in selected cases. Reconstruction — gastroduodenostomy, gastrojejunostomy or esophagojejunostomy, often Roux-en-Y after total resection — is why the join, not only the incision, dominates recovery.
