Lack of correlation between intragastric pressure and early gastric emptying rate after proximal gastric vagotomy.

In order to evaluate the contribution of the impairment of the gastric accommodation to distension to the abnormalities of the gastric emptying of a liquid meal, these functions were evaluated simultaneously in 20 duodenal ulcer patients after proximal gastric vagotomy and in 13 non-operated duodenal ulcer patients. Gastric accommodation was measured by recording intragastric pressure during intragastric instillation of 500 ml 10% dextrose and the gastric emptying of this solution was measured with the double-sample test meal with phenol red as unabsorbable marker. The intragastric volume remaining 10 min after the 500 ml 10% dextrose test meal was significantly (P less than 0.02) smaller in the post-vagotomy patients (range: 60.0 to 580.0 ml; median: 320.0 ml) than in the non-operated patients (range: 220.0 to 540.0 ml; median: 380.0 ml). There was no significant difference between the two groups for the half-life of the test meal in the stomach. Maximal intragastric pressure was significantly higher (P less than 0.02) in post-vagotomy patients (range: 3.3 to 14.5 mmHg; median: 8.7 mmHg) than in non-operated patients (range: 1.8 to 5.5 mmHg; median: 3.8 mmHg). There was no significant correlation between maximal intragastric pressure and volume remaining 10 min after the test meal or half-life values within any group. These results confirm other studies showing that the initial gastric emptying rate of a liquid meal is accelerated and the gastric accommodation to distension is impaired by proximal gastric vagotomy, while overall gastric emptying is not changed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)