Spike activity of the muscle wall of the stomach remnant after gastric resection.

Chronic experiments have been carried out on dogs with implanted bipolar silver ball-shaped electrodes on the muscle wall of the stomach remnant after gastric resection. It has been found that in the first group of animals with subtotal gastrectomy (the frequency of the slow potentials during late periods after the resection increases and reaches the frequency of the corpus and antrum) the spike activity is represented by small groups of low-amplitude and low-frequency spike potentials. In the second group of animals for which the resection line passes at a distance of 1 to 1.5 cm distally from the boundary between the fundus and the corpus of the stomach (the frequency of the slow potentials increases to about 4 cpm even at the end of the first postoperational week), large groups of relatively high-amplitude and high-frequency spike potentials burst with the rhythmic slow potentials. The faster and better adaptation of the stomach remnant after sparse resection (2nd group of animals) is considered to be due to the existence of part of the pacemaker area in the stomach remnant. The spike activity characterizing the myoelectric complex is a prerequisite for the realization of the evacuation function by the stomach remnant.