Gastrojejunostomy

A gastrojejunostomy is a surgical procedure that creates an anastomosis between the stomach and the jejunum. It can be performed in either a hand-sewn or a stapled fashion, either open or laparoscopically. Some centers have even created gastrojejunostomies endoscopically.

There are several reasons to develop a jejunostomy, including bypass obstructions, as part of a weight-loss procedure, and as part of a reconstruction after gastric resection. The first successful gastrojejunostomy was performed by Anton Woelfer in 1881 to bypass a cancer of the pylorus. However, the creation of a gastrojejunostomy where the stomach is anastomosed to the jejunum without creating a separate limb for pancreatobiliary secretions is known as a Billroth II procedure after Woelfer's teacher, Dr. Theodor Bilroth, even though Billroth did not perform his first successful gastrojejunostomy until 1885.

The procedure where a gastric remnant is anastomosed to a loop of the jejunum and an additional jejunojejunostomy is created known as a Roux-en-Y procedure after Cesar Roux. He popularized it in 1887, although Anton Woelfer also performed the first Roux-en-Y procedure in 1883.