Abstract
Forty-seven patients undergoing total vagotomy and pyloroplasty and 77 patients treated by gastric resection were examined radiologically by means of a nutritional contrast medium. A positive correlation between the gastric emptying rate, the small intestinal transit time, and the colon filling was found. In the case of rapid gastric emptying, this correlation was significantly more pronounced after vagotomy than after gastric resection. The cause is possibly that vagotomy neutralizes the decelerating effect of the ileum.
A rapid gastric emptying rate, a rapid small intestinal passage, and filling of the colon occurred significantly more frequently in vagotomised patients suffering from diarrhoea than in vagotomised patients without diarrhoea.
The rapid gastric emptying, the rapid small intestinal passage, and a rapid movement of the intestinal contents through the colon are important factors in the pathogenesis of post-vagotomy diarrhoea.