[Blood flow in the swine stomach in hemorrhagic shock]

In nine conscious piglets, total and regional gastric blood flow was measured (8 microns radioactive microspheres) in the same animals before (control) and at the end of a 3-h hemorrhagic shock period (mean AoBP = 40 mm Hg). Gastric blood flow decreased dramatically (88.4%) during shock. This decrease was most severe in the mucosa of corpus and fundus, where the highest flow was registered during control and where stress lesions are usually found. The reduction in gastric flow was significantly greater than the reduction in cardiac output (45.1%). The disproportional reduction in gastric blood flow may be explained by the high alpha-adrenergic activity of splanchnic organs (2) and by the impediment to liver outflow (1) during hemorrhagic shock.