Pernicious Anemia Following Total Gastrectomy

Pernicious anemia following extensive surgical ablation of the stomach occurs with a frequency which bespeaks more than a coincidence. Since of recent years advances in surgical technic and changes in surgical philosophy have resulted in more radical resections of the stomach, pernicious anemia as a late complication is to be expected more often than heretofore. The excellent summaries by Goldhamer 1 and by Singer and Steigmann 2 had brought the number of reported cases up to 34 by 1934. Since that time about 20 additional cases 3 have been reported, illustrating essentially the same points stressed in the literature previously, i. e., that the symptoms and the typical hematologic picture develop in two to fifteen years (with the exception of 2 cases 4 in the entire series reviewed); that signs and symptoms of degeneration of the posterolateral column often accompany the anemia; that other features of the pernicious anemia syndrome,