Metoclopramide-ceruletide assisted small bowel examination.

We investigated the feasibility of performing a combined upper gastrointestinal and small bowel examination. Metoclopramide was given at the start of the examination and ceruletide was injected to hasten small bowel transit. The quality and duration of fifty examinations (Group I) was compared to that of fifty patients receiving metoclopramide alone (Group II) and fifty patients undergoing unaided examinations (Group III). The mean duration of the entire study was 29.3 minutes for Group I patients, 37.6 minutes for patients in Group II and 69.1 minutes for Group III subjects. The combination of agents produced contracted fold patterns in the jejunum and ileum that rendered individual loops more accessible to individual study under fluoroscopy in approximately 50% of subjects.