This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

EOGHAN R. T. C. Owen, FRCS
Harrow, Middlesex, England

Arch Surg. 1988;123(7):912.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—The recent article by Bluett et all that evaluates staple lines in gastric surgery was most interesting and informative. I write to protest regarding the INVITED EDITORIAL COMMENT at the end of the article.

I would like to know how Dr Ravitch arrived at his conclusions. It may well be that the bursting pressures' and resistance to tension disruption are irrelevant to the clinical situation in the vast majority of gastrointestinal operations, as the forces are disproportionate to the physiologic stresses. However, with bariatric surgery, this is certainly not the case. It would seem logical to assume that the pressures to which the staple line and proximal pouch are subjected after, eg, Mason vertical banded gastroplasty, are going to be high, particularly in these difficult, often noncompliant patients. The exact magnitude of these pressures is unknown, but if the stoma does become obstructed, it is possible that . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?