Gastric emptying and postprandial duodenogastric reflux in dogs with Heineke-Mikulicz pyloroplasty.

A two-marker technique avoiding transpyloric intubation was used to measure the volume of gastric secretion, the rate of gastric emptying and the degree of postprandial duodenogastric reflux in 8 dogs, 5 without and 3 with Heineke-Mikulicz pyloroplasties. The stomach emptied after a liquid fatty meal at an overall rate of 4.9 ml/min +/- 0.2 s.e.m. in animals with a normal pylorus and 5.7 +/- 0.2 ml/min in those with pyloroplasties (P less than 0.05). Though mean fractional emptying rates were similar, the fractional emptying rate was greater in animals with pyloroplasties than in those without in the first 10 and in the last 20 minutes. The rate of duodenogastric reflux was likewise greater in animals with pyloroplasties than in those without (1.8 +/- 0.2 ml/min and 0.7 +/- 0.2 ml/min respectively, P less than 0.05). The rates of gastric secretion did not differ materially (2.2 +/- 0.3 ml/min and 2.1 +/- 0.2 ml/min), but a greater proportion of the gastric contents was emptied more than once in animals with pyloroplasties than in those without (7.7 +/- 1.5 per cent and 2.3 +/- 1.0 per cent, P less than 0.05).