The bacterial flora and the changes of the N-nitrosamine concentration in the operated stomach.

The studies included 170 patients (103 men and 67 women) aged 23 to 66 years, operated on because of an ulcerous disease. Depending on the method of surgical treatment patients were divided into 5 groups (those after gastric resection with Rydygier's method, after resection with the Billroth II method, after trunk vagotomy with pyloroplasty, after highly selective vagotomy, and after gastro-enterostomy). In all patients a qualitative estimation of the nitrate-reducing bacteria was carried out, as well as a chromatographic test of the selected N-nitrosamine concentration in the gastric juice. It was shown that the changes in the quantity of the nitrate-reducing bacteria and in the N-nitrosamine concentration depended on the type of surgical intervention conducted. The largest mean content of nitrate-reducing bacteria and the highest average N-nitrosamine concentration were confirmed in the gastric juice of patients after gastroenterostomy and after gastric resection with the Billroth II method, and the lowest values--in patients after highly selective vagotomy.