Gastric Emptying in Asymptomatic Partial Gastrectomy (B-II) Patients

Abstract

It is generally assumed that many of the postprandial symptoms occurring in patients after partial gastrectomy are caused by a disordered pattern of gastric emptying. Several studies reporting enhanced rates of emptying of liquids and solids after partial gastrectomy have been published (¹, ², ³, ⁴, ⁵, ⁶, ⁸, ⁹, ¹⁰, ¹¹, ¹²), but it should be noted, that differences in both measurement technique and patient selection render comparison of these studies impossible. In some studies patients with different types of resections were examined, in many studies the type of resection was insufficiently described, and in other studies vagotomizad patients were included. Since the rate of emptying might be influenced by the size of the anastomosis (¹³) and will definitely be affected by vagotomy (highly selective or truncal) (⁹,¹⁰) the relevance of those studies is limited.