A vagotomy twice ?

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malibu.ron@verizon.net - 03 Feb 2006 04:00 GMT

I wonder if a specialist in vagotomy surgery might comment.

A patients old operating records read "The anterior vagus nerve was not
that of the main trunk but many fibers and each fiber was divided. The
posterior vagus nerve was quite prominent and this was doubly clipped
and divided". (there were no pathology reports on file)

Fifteen years later the patient had another vagotomy and the Dr. said
the first vagotomy was never done. ` My question is, Could the fibers
grow back together and can all signs of the double clipping completely
disappear in a 15 year period.

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Howard McCollister - 03 Feb 2006 05:12 GMT

>I wonder if a specialist in vagotomy surgery might comment.
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> grow back together and can all signs of the double clipping completely
> disappear in a 15 year period.

Incomplete vagotomy is a fairly common scenario. They don't grow back
together, some of the fibers of the anterior vagus were probably never cut
becasue they were indeed splayed out. I can't explain the lack of visible
clips. They should show up on xray, assuming the film was taken with the
correct exposure.

In that case, the procedure of choice would be a thoracoscopic truncal
vagotomy in the chest. Otherwise, the same thing is likely to happen again.

HMc

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