Should peri-gastrectomy gastric acidity be our focus among gastric cancer patients?

Figure 1 Gastric pH of patients undergoing total, distal and proximal gastrectomy. Pre-surgical pH was all very significantly larger than 3.5, the threshold value of hypoacidity (P < 0.01). No significant difference in pre-operative pH was observable between the 3 groups (P > 0.05). Gastric pH on the 1^st to the 5^th days and 6 mo post-surgery in the 3 groups was all very significantly larger than that pre-operation and 4, the threshold pH of weak-acid reflux (P < 0.01). On the 1^st day post-gastrectomy, gastric pH was comparable among the 3 groups (P > 0.05). On the 2^nd day, both the total gastrectomy (TG) and proximal gastrectomy (PG) groups were accompanied with significantly higher gastric pH than the distal gastrectomy (DG) group (P < 0.01), while there was not significant difference between the TG and PG groups (P > 0.05). On days 3, 4 and 5 and 6 mo post-gastrectomy, patients undergoing TG had significantly higher gastric pH than both individuals receiving DG and those undergoing PG (P < 0.05), while the difference between the DG and PG groups was insignificant (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences between gastric pH on the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th days and 6 mo post gastrectomy in all groups (P > 0.05).