[Anatomical study of the intramural esophageal branches of the vagus nerve with gastric distribution in man].

Thoraco-abdominal oseophagus was removed in continuity with the stomach during autopsy of 30 patients--two patients had undergone troncular vagotomy and pyloroplasty, the other 28 had not been operated on. In 22 cases (including the 2 which had undergone vagotomy) one or more branches of the thoracic vagus nerve existed. These branches (intramural nerves) reached the stomach after passing for 1.5 to 10 cm between the two muscular layers (of the oesophagus). They originated more often from the anterior (18) than from the posterior vagus nerve (-6). Intramural nerves are spared during abdominal vagotomy: are they the cause of some therapeutic failures of vagotomy?