Gastric emptying of the intrathoracic stomach as oesophageal replacement for oesophageal carcinomas.

Thirty-eight patients who underwent oesophagogastrostomy for oesophageal carcinomas were included in this study. Nineteen cases had pyloroplasty or pyloromyotomy (group A) and the other 19 cases did not have drainage procedures of the intrathoracic stomach (group B). Radionuclide labelled solid meals were used to calculate the gastric emptying times (GET) of the intrathoracic stomachs. The GET of the patients was compared with the normal GET (88.7 +/- 14.2 min) from 25 normal volunteers. In the 38 patients, 18 (47%) demonstrated prolonged GET, 10 (26%) shortened GET, and the remaining 10 (26%) cases GET was within the normal range. Based on Fisher's tests, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the incidence of prolonged and normal GET but significantly shorter (P < 0.05) GET between groups A and B. Our data suggest that the intrathoracic stomach appears to be of variable motility, different from the stomach located in the normal position. To preserve the better gastric emptying, a drainage procedure should be recommended for intrathoracic stomachs.