A name of gastritis verrucosa was proposed by Sano, after his careful microscopic investigations, to designate a group of gastric pathologies which is called as ‘takoibo’ or suckers-of-octopus-like gastritis, gastritis erosiva, gastritis varioliform, polyp of type II and so on. As the histologic feature of this disease he pointed out hyperplasia of the pyloric glands in the antrum and that of foveolar epithelium in the body. One hundred typical cases of gastritis verrucosa were selected among those who underwent gastroscopy or gastrectomy at the National Cancer Center Hospital during ten years from its opening in 1961. Average age of the cases was 44.5 years for gastritis verrucosa in the pre-pyloric area, 50.2 for the antrum, 58.8 for the angular area and 58.8 for the body. Shifting the age towards older with the location of its lesion became the more proximal is the same tendency as the proximal expansion of gastric atrophy by age. Sex ratio was 2.45 to 1. Two thirds of cases complained only vague epigastric discomfort or were discovered by mass-survey for stomach cancer. In the pre-pylorus and antrum gross type of the lesions was mainly ‘takoibo’ or ‘hebitama’ (snake-which-swallowed-eggs-like), and in the angulus and body it was 'takoibo' or polyplike. The lesions chiefly lined up on the longitudinal or circular folds in the pre-pylorus and antrum, and along the borderline between the pyloric and fundic glands area in the angulus. The gastric mucosa evaluated by gastroscopy was less atrophic in the cases of gastritis verrucosa than that in control cases. Complication of gastric ulcer was observed in 14%, duodenal ulcer in 12%, pedunculated polyp in 11%, borderline atypical epithelium in 2%. Endoscopic follow-up over 2 to 9 years was performed in 3lcases. The lesions were remained without change in 22 cases and regressed in 9 cases. Complication of gastric cancer was disclosed in 2 cases during the period. Gastritis verrucosa was considered to be originated from gastric erosions. However by what causes gastric erosions, which usually heal very rapidly, develop to this special type of gastritis in some cases is remained for further investigations.
