Small intestinal dysmotility following abdominal irradiation in the rat small intestine

Abdominal symptoms such as diarrhoea, abdominal cramps and vomiting are common during and after abdominal radiotherapy for gynaecological and pelvic malignancy. It has recently been recognized that small intestinal dysmotility may contribute to these symptoms but the underlying mechanisms are unclear in part because of the technical difficulties inherent in performing studies in irradiated small intestine. The aim of the current study was to evaluate small intestinal motor activity using perfused micromanometric techniques in 6-8-cm segments of ileum during arterial perfusion with isotonic oxygenated fluorocarbon solution. Intestinal segments from six rats were studied 4 days after treatment with 10 Gy abdominal irradiation. Ileal segments from nine nonirradiated animals acted as controls. For each experiment the total number of pressure waves, high-amplitude (> 20 mmHg, long-duration > 6 sec) pressure waves, and long (> 20 associated) bursts of pressure waves were determined. Irradiation had no effect on the overall number of pressure waves, but increased high-amplitude long-duration (HALD) pressure waves (248 vs 7, P < 0.01). In control animals HALD waves were localized to a single recording site but after radiotherapy 74% of HALD waves were temporally associated with similar pressure waves in other manometric channels. Forty-seven per cent of associated HALD waves migrated aborally. Retrograde migration of HALD waves was seen in five segments following irradiation. Irradiation abolished bursts of > 20 pressure waves.