Effect of sham feeding on acid secretion in patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome with or without proximal gastric vagotomy.

In dogs, vagal stimulation by sham feeding inhibits gastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion from vagally denervated fundic pouches. To investigate this in humans, we sham fed patients with endogenous hypergastrinemia secondary to the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Whether these patients had been treated previously by proximal gastric vagotomy or not, sham feeding did not reduce basal acid secretion. Thus, sham feeding did not inhibit acid secretion in humans with hypergastrinemia, even when the fundus of the stomach had been vagally denervated.