Gastric motility 1 year after proximal gastric vagotomy

The intragastric pressure/volume relationship was recorded in six patients with duodenal ulcer to study gastric motility before and after proximal gastric vagotomy (PGV). Recordings were done preoperatively and 6 weeks and 1 year after surgery by means of a flaccid plastic bag in the stomach connected to a low-pressure transducer. The bag was filled and emptied stepwise with defined volumes to study responses in gastric basal pressure or tone and contractions. Significant increase in basal pressure and reduced strength of rhythmic contractions were found 6 weeks after the operation, indicating disturbance of the gastric reservoir in the corpus and fundus. These changes were still present 1 year later, but some reduction of the pressure/volume relation was seen. The study indicates that a small tendency to adaptation or a revere towards normal occurs with gastric motility responses to volume loads simulating a meal 1 year after PGV, but the changes are still significantly different from the preoperative recordings.