Abstract
JEJUNOILEAL bypass for gross, morbid obesity has become widely accepted during the past few years. As one would expect from an operation creating major perturbations in the anatomy and physiology of the alimentary tract, the price paid, in terms of undesirable side effects for the often spectacular results, has been high, albeit not prohibitively so. Among the unanticipated and apparently specific complications of this operation that have been discovered recently is that of pneumatosis intestinalis in the bypassed intestine. Two cases have been reported by Passaro et al1 and one by Martyak and Curtis.2 All three cases were characterized by severe gaseous distension of the small bowel associated with subserosal air dissection and, in two instances, with pneumoperitoneum. One patient in our series has had this complication, and under circumstances that enabled us to understand the mechanism of its development. If our interpretation is correct, this complication should

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