CHANGES IN THE GASTRIC ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY AFTER A WHIPPLE PROCEDURE

Abstract

Several recent reports reveal that patients develop symptoms of gastorintestinal motility disorders after the standard Whipple procedure. In the Department of Propedeutics of Surgery at Bulgarian Medical Academy in Sofia we observed the same phenomenon in our Whipple-operated group of patients. But the pathogenetic mechanism was so far unclear that prompted us to conduct an experimental study in this area. Eight mongrel dogs weighing an average weight of 15-20 Kg were operated after a Whipple procedure; five dogs survived postoperatively. Microelectrodes were implanted subserously on the muscular wall of the gastric remnant, afferent and efferent loop of the jejunum, as well as in the duodenum which were kept intact to serve the purpose. Bioelectric tracings were conducted twice or thrice weekly for a period of 2-3 hours up to the end of the first postoperative year. Serious rhythmic as well as characteristic disturbances which are believed to be related to the motility disorders after this operative procedure were found in the bioelectric activity of the gastric remnant.