[Serorrhaphy prevents regeneration of vagus nerve fibers after proximal gastric vagotomy].

UNLABELLED

Spouting or regeneration of vagus fibers occurs after vagotomy. An axonal tracing method was used to see the long-term effect of serorrhaphy in the prevention of axonal regeneration after proximal gastric vagotomy (PGV) in ferrets.

METHODS

A neurotracer, wheat-germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase (0.5 mg), was injected subserosally at the corpus of the anterior stomach (1) without PGV (n = 4), (2) immediately after PGV (n = 2), (3) one year after PGV with serorrhaphy (n = 3), and (4) one year after PGV without serorrhaphy (n = 3). The ferrets were killed by perfusion-fixation. The brainstem was processed histochemically. Numbers of labeled cells in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus were statistically analyzed using square-root transformation.

RESULTS

Numbers of labeled cells were 348 for (1), 13 for (2), 2 for (3), and 43 for (4). Multiple comparisons revealed significant differences in (1) vs. (2), (3), (4) and (3) vs. (4).

DISCUSSION

The number of preganglionic efferent vagus cells decreased acutely after PGV, which persisted one year. Regenerated vagus axons were less in the chronic group with serorrhaphy than in the group without one. Thus time factor did not influence the regeneration, but serorrhaphy was important in preventing vagal regeneration.

CONCLUSION

Serorrhaphy during PGV prevents the regeneration of preganglionic efferent vagus fibers.