Jejunal flap interposition after total gastrectomy in managing patients with familial adenomatous polyposis: A report on the experience of a single centre.

Introduction: Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) are characterised by the appearance of colorectal cancer if the disease is left to follow its natural course, which means they frequently undergo prophylactic colectomy at a young age. In these patients, duodenal cancer becomes the leading cause of death, which deems surveillance necessary. Gastric cancer, although rare, can also occur in these patients, and total gastrectomy is the usual treatment option.

Patients and methods: We used a pedicled isoperistaltic jejunal flap interposition technique to reconstruct the digestive tract after a total gastrectomy so that duodenal surveillance could be maintained in patients followed in outpatient consultation for genetic diseases. We also describe how this technique was performed fully through laparoscopy in two of these cases.

Results: We identified four patients with FAP who developed malignant or extensive pre-malignant gastric lesions which were not endoscopically resectable. Two patients were submitted to open surgery and the remaining two underwent laparoscopic surgery. There was no perioperative or post-operative morbidity, and all four patients are alive at the time of writing, with a minimum follow-up of 12 months. They were not diagnosed with major nutritional imbalances and were routinely submitted to endoscopic duodenal surveillance, sometimes including polypectomy, with ease.

Conclusion: In our experience, this surgical technique has good results, and all surgical steps can be done entirely through laparoscopy, with every advantage this approach entails.