Absorption of elemental and complex nutritional solutions during a continuous jejunal perfusion in man

The jejunal absorption of either an elemental solution (amino acids, glucose and glucose oligosaccharides), or of nonelemental diet (chicken meat, egg-yolk power, soya flour, glucose, saccharose, maltose and dextrin maltose, corn and wheat oils) were compared in 25 healthy subjects by the technique of intestinal perfusion with a three-lumen tube. The test solutions were perfused just beyond the ligament of Treitz. The samples were collected 35, 70 and 105 cm below the infusion point. In a small segment of jejunum, the absorption increased the nutritional imbalance of the element diet 1 m below the infusion point, the flow rate in the lumen was similar for the two solutions and higher than the initial flow rate; the absorption, in terms of calories, is similar for the two solutions.