[Changes in intestinal motility after intravenous injection of alcohol]

It has been well established that the electrical activity of the small intestine consists, in the fasting state, in a cyclic phenomenon - the myoelectric complex - that recurs at about 90 minutes intervals in the dog. The myoelectric complex is disrupted by oral feeding whereas intravenous feeding does not change the cyclically recurring myoelectric activity. The aim of our work was to investigate whether intravenous ethanol was followed by changes in the myoelectric complex. 5 dogs were prepared with Ag AgCl electrodes sewn in the jejunum. After 15 days recovery, the electrical activity was recorded in the dogs fasted for 24 hours, after injection of 100% ethanol at doses of 2, 5 and 10 ml, the total volume of the solution being adjusted to 20 ml with saline. Controls were made with saline 154 mM. Each experiment was repeated twice. The effects of alcohol were studied on the 3 interdigestive cycles following injections of alcohol. The results showed that neither saline nor ethanol at dose of 2 ml did change the myoelectric complex with cycle was meanly of 90 +/- 3 minutes +/- SEM. On the contrary injection of ethanol at doses of 5 and 10 ml was followed by a disruption of the myoelectric complex during respectively 195 +/- 9 and 200 +/- 8 minutes. These results indicate that intravenous ethanol significantly interrupts the myoelectric complex. Therefore, ethanol cannot be considered as a usual nutriment as far as its effect on the electrical activity of the intestine is concerned.