The role of altered gastric emptying in the initiation of clinical dumping.

The disposition to dumping was measured in 42 patients by finding their STCO2 before gastric surgery. Twenty of these had a low STCO2 and were therefore predisposed to experience dumping symptoms. Only 10 of these patients actually experienced clinical dumping when reviewed 1 year after surgery. At that time gastric emptying studies showed that those with clinical dumping had rapid gastric emptying in combination with a previously measured low STCO2, in contrast to those who did not experience dumping symptoms.