Gastric Cooling and Regional Gastric Mucosal Flow in Anesthetized Animals

Abstract

Regional gastric mucosal flow was measured by hydrogen clearance techniques during gastric cooling. At subnormal temperatures a considerable augmentation of mucosal flow was observed both in the antrum and corpus region. At mucosal temperatures below 15 °C, which only could be reached by continuous balloon perfusion of the stomach with chilled water, a moderate decrease of mucosal flow occurred in nor-mothermic animals. On the basis of the presented results it appears debatable whether gastric cooling has any place in the treatment of bleeding from gastric mucosal lesions as a means of reducing gastric mucosal flow.

Key-words:

• Gastric cooling
• gastric flow
• hydrogen clearance
• mucosal flow