Gastric cooling and regional gastric mucosal flow in anesthetized animals

Regional gastric mucosal flow was measured by hydrogen clearance techniques during gastric cooling. At subnormal temperatures a considerable augmentation of mucosal flow was observed both in the antrum and corpus region. At mucosal temperatures below 15 degrees C, which only could be reached by continuous balloon perfusion of the stomach with chilled water, a moderate decrease of mucosal flow occurred in normothermic animals. On the basis of the presented results it appears debatable whether gastric cooling has any place in the treatment of bleeding from gastric mucosal lesions as a means of reducing gastric mucosal flow.