Study of the Gastric Motility after Atypical Selective Proximal Vagotomy

During selective proximal vagotomy (SPV), atypical SPV (atyp-SPV) was proposed when either the anterior or posterior nerve of Latarjet was sacrified. In order to study the gastric motility after atyp-SPV , eight mongrel dogs on which SPV had been performed underwent atyp-SPV, with subsequent transthoracic truncal vagotomy (TV). These surgeries were performed at about 4 to 5 week intervals, and gastric myoelectrical activities were recorded serially through chronically implanted four bipolar electrods in the stomach. In another four dogs with atyp-SPV, contractile activities of the gastric wall were recorded by means of waterproof strainguages sutured on the gastric wall. Following atyp-SPV, the mean propagation velocity and discharge interval of the stomach were approximately similar to those in SPV, except for slightly decreased propagation velocity and slightly prolonged discharge intervals in only the early postprandial period after transection of the posterior nerve of Latarjet. Subsequent TV decreased the propagation velocity significantly although it did not alter the discharge intervals except in the early postprandial period. Atyp-SPV maintained gastric contraction with a waxing and waning pattern of varying amplitudes in the antrum and monotonic activities in the corpus. These results substantiate that atyp-SPV keeps gastric motility similar to SPV and can be performed as an alternate modality of SPV, when necessary.