AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 242, Issue 1 9-14, Copyright © 1982 by American Physiological Society
Gastric emptying and postprandial duodenogastric reflux in pylorectomized dogs
S. A. Muller-Lissner, A. Sonnenberg, G. Schattenmann, A. Hollinger, J. R. Siewert and A. L. Blum
A two-marker technique was used to determine gastric emptying rate and
postprandial duodenogastric reflux rate without transpyloric intubation.
The fractional gastric emptying rate in five dogs with normal pylorus was
3.0 +/- 0.3 (SE) X 10(-2)/min. In three dogs with circular pylorectomy, it
was 5.8 +/- 0.8 X 10(-2)/min (P less than 0.01). The duodenogastric reflux
rates were 0.72 +/- 0.23 (SE) ml/min and 3.21 +/- 0.97 ml/min. (P less than
0.05). The percentage of the test meal that by to-and-fro movements across
the pylorus was emptied more than once was 2.3 +/- 1.0 (SE) in normal dogs
and 15.5 +/- 2.4 after pylorectomy (P less than 0.005). Because the higher
emptying rate was accompanied by more to-and-fro movements, the amount of
the meal remaining in the stomach, and thus net gastric emptying, was
similar in both groups. It is concluded that pylorectomy increases both
reflux rate and emptying rate. This effect on emptying can only be detected
by a method that includes the measurement of to-and-fro movements across
the pylorus. The pylorus thus appears to prevent postprandial
duodenogastric reflux and to slow gastric emptying.
