Effect of highly selective vagotomy on gastric motor activity of duodenal ulcer patients

The effect of highly selective vagotomy on the gastric emptying time of a food-barium meal and antral myoelectrical and manometrical activities was studied in two groups of duodenal ulcer patients: one with and another without delay in gastric emptying. Controls performed 1 and 3 months after operation showed that the group of patients with non-delayed preoperative gastric emptying kept a good emptying, only with sporadic, slight and transient disturbances of the gastric myoelectric activity. Conversely, the group of patients with delayed preoperative gastric emptying showed an increase in emptying time together with marked alterations in myoelectric and manometric activities.