Pathophysiology of diabetic gastroparesis

Our understanding of the nature of diabetic gastroparesis has advanced in the last decade due to new investigational procedures (electrogastrography, visceral evoked potential recording), and transferring these insights into clinical routine will be our task in the future. Meanwhile, the clinical relevance of gastroparesis--whether overt or silent--remains unquestioned: proper gastric emptying is a prerequisite for adequate metabolic control, and its disturbance may result not only in further progression of the chronic complications of the disease, but also in the false assumption that these patients are not compliant with their doctor's management--the patients just may have delayed emptying of their stomach without noticing it.