Afferent loop syndrome of a patient with recurrent fever:A case report

BACKGROUND Afferent loop syndrome(ALS)is a rare complication,Aoki et al reported that the incidence of distal gastrectomy in Billroth-II is 0.3%-1.0%.The clinical manifest-ations of ALS are atypical,which can manifest as severe abdominal pain,vomiting,obstructive jaundice,malnutrition,etc.CASE SUMMARY The patient was a 58-year-old man who complained of recurrent high fever for more than 1 week.Laboratory tests showed an increase in neutrophil ratio,procal-citonin,C-reactive protein,and abnormal liver function.Enhanced computed tomography scan of the abdomen showed small intestinal obstruction between the anastomosis of the gastrojejunum,bile duct,and pancreaticoduodenum.Gastroscopy revealed significant narrowing of the lumen 15 cm from the anasto-mosis into the afferent loop.After performing balloon dilation and placement of the nutrition tube,the patient did not experience further fever.CONCLUSION ALS is relatively rare after pancreaticoduodenectomy,and the treatment depends on the nature of the obstructive lesion.The traditional treatment method is surgery,and in recent years,endoscopy has provided a new treatment method for ALS.

Biliary stone causing afferent loop syndrome and pancreatitis

We report the case of an 84-year-old female who had a partial gastrectomy with Billroth-Ⅱ anastomosis 24 years ago for a benign peptic ulcer who now presented an acute pancreatitis secondary to an afferent loop syndrome. The syndrome was caused by a gallstone that migrated through a cholecystoenteric fistula. This is the first description in the literature of a biliary stone causing afferent loop syndrome.

Treatment of afferent loop syndrome using fluoroscopic-guided nasointestinal tube placement: Two case reports

BACKGROUND Afferent loop syndrome(ALS)is a rare mechanical complication that occurs after reconstruction of the stomach or esophagus to the jejunum,such as Billroth II gastrojejunostomy,Roux-en-Y gastrojejunostomy,or Roux-en-Y esophagojejunostomy.Traditionally,an operation is the first choice for benign causes.However,for patients in poor physical condition who experience ALS soon after R0 resection,the type of treatment remains controversial.Here,we present an efficient conservative method to treat ALS.CASE SUMMARY Case 1 was a 69-year-old male patient who underwent total gastrectomy with Roux-en-Y jejunojejunostomy.On postoperative day(POD)10 he developed symptoms of ALS that persisted and increased over 1 wk.Case 2 was a 59-yearold male patient who underwent distal gastrectomy with Billroth II gastrojejunostomy.On postoperative day POD 9 he developed symptoms of ALS that persisted for 2 wk.Both patients underwent fluoroscopic-guided nasointestinal tube placement with maintenance of continuous negative pressure suction.Approximately 20 d after the procedure,both patients had recovered well and were discharged from hospital after removal of the tube.At 3-mo follow-up,there were no signs of ALS in these two patients.CONCLUSION This is the first report of treating postoperative ALS by fluoroscopic-guided nasointestinal tube placement.Our cases demonstrate that this procedure is an effective and safe method to treat ALS that relieves patients’symptoms and avoids complications caused by other invasive procedures.

Clinical management for malignant afferent loop obstruction

Afferent loop obstruction(ALO)is defined as duodenal or jejunal mechanical obstruction at the proximal anastomosis site of a gastrojejunostomy.With advances in chemotherapy,the incidence of malignant ALO is increasing.Malignant ALO can be complicated by ischemia,gangrenous bowel,pancreatitis,and ascending cholangitis.Moreover,the general condition of patients with recurrent cancer is often poor.Therefore,accurate and rapid diagnosis and minimally invasive treatments are required.However,no review articles on the diagnosis and treatment of malignant ALO have been published.Through literature searching,we reviewed related articles published between 1959 and 2020 in the PubMed database.Herein,we present recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of malignant ALO and describe future perspectives.Endoscopic transluminal self-expandable metal stent(SEMS)placement is considered the standard treatment for malignant ALO,as this procedure is well established and less invasive.However,with the development of interventional endoscopic ultrasound(EUS)in recent years,the usefulness of EUS-guided gastrojejunostomy has been reported.Moreover,through indirect comparison,this approach has been reported to be superior to transluminal SEMS placement.It is expected that a safer and less invasive treatment method will be established through the continued advancement and innovation of interventional endoscopy techniques.

Pancreaticoduodenectomy following total gastrectomy:A case report and literature review

We present a case of afferent loop syndrome(ALS)occurring after pancreaticoduodenectomy(PD)in a patient who had previously undergone total gastrectomy(TG),and review the English-language literature concerning reconstruction procedures following PD in patients who had undergone TG.The patient was a69-year-old man who had undergone TG reconstruction by a Roux-en-Y method at age 58 years.The patient underwent PD for pancreas head adenocarcinoma.A jejunal limb previously made at the prior TG was used for pancreaticojejunostomy and hepaticojejunostomy.Despite normal patency of the hepaticojejunostomy,he suffered from repeated postoperative cholangitis which was brought on by ALS due to shortness of the jejunal limb(15 cm in length).We therefore performed receliotomy in which the hepaticojejunostomy was disconnected and reconstructed using a new Y limb 40-cm in length constructed in a double Roux-en-Y fashion.The refractory cholangitis resolved immediately after the receliotomy and did not recur.Review of the literature revealed the lack of any current consensus for a standard procedure for reconstruction following PD in patients who had previously undergone TG.This issue warrants further attention,particularly given the expected future increase in the number of PDs in patients with a history of gastric cancer.

An unusual cause of simultaneous common bile and pancreatic duct dilation

Simultaneous dilation of both the common bile duct and the pancreatic duct(double-duct sign)is usually because of ampullary or pancreatic tumours.Here we report an unusual cause of double-duct dilation;we describe the case of a 49-year-old female who developed afferent loop syndrome after pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy:crosssectional imaging of the abdomen revealed a double-duct sign.