Incidence of dumping after truncal and selective vagotomy with pyloroplasty and highly selective vagotomy without drainage procedure.

The incidence of dumping after truncal or selective vagotomy with pyloroplasty and highly selective vagotomy without a drainage procedure was assessed both clinically and experimentally. At a gastric follow-up clinic dumping was found to be significantly less frequent in patients who had undergone highly selective vagotomy without a drainage procedure than in patients who had undergone truncal or selective vagotomy with pyloroplasty (P < 0.05 or < 0.001, respectively). Hypertonic glucose given by mouth provoked the onset of dumping in 20% of patients with duodenal ulcer before operation, in 73% after truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty, in 80% after selective vagotomy and pyloroplasty, and in 47% after highly selective vagotomy. The test meal also produced significantly greater decreases in blood pressure and increases in pulse rate in patients who had undergone vagotomy with pyloroplasty than in patients who had undergone highly selective vagotomy.

Vagotomy without diarrhoea.

The incidence of diarrhoea after three types of vagotomy was assessed "blind" at a gastric follow-up clinic one year after operation. Diarrhoea was recorded in 24% of patients after truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty, in 18% after selective vagotomy and pyloroplasty, but in only 2% of patients after highly selective vagotomy without a drainage procedure. The incidence of diarrhoea was significantly less (P < 0.01) after highly selective vagotomy than after either of the other procedures.Hypertonic glucose solution given by mouth to 15 representative patients from each group and to 15 patients before operation provoked the onset of diarrhoea in 67% of the patients who had undergone truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty, in 60% of those who had undergone selective vagotomy and pyloroplasty, in 13% of those who had undergone highly selective vagotomy without a drainage procedure, and in none of the preoperative patients. Again the difference between the "highly selective" group and the other two groups of vagotomized patients was statistically significant.It is suggested that postvagotomy diarrhoea is attributable both to unregulated gastric emptying after truncal or selective vagotomy with a drainage procedure and to the extragastric denervation produced by truncal vagotomy. "Postvagotomy" diarrhoea can be virtually eliminated by using highly selective vagotomy without a drainage procedure.

Five- to eight-year results of truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty for duodenal ulcer.

From January 1963 to December 1965 inclusive 192 men with duodenal ulcer were treated by elective truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty with one death. Ten subsequent deaths were due to causes unrelated to the ulcer or operation, and 17 patients became untraceable. The remaining 164 patients have been followed up for five to eight years. The late results have been compared with those obtained in a previous study of patients five to eight years after truncal vagotomy and gastroenterostomy, truncal vagotomy and antrectomy, and subtotal gastrectomy respectively for duodenal ulcer.Of the various postgastric operation syndromes early dumping, late dumping, bilious vomiting, and diarrhoea were all less frequent, but not significantly so, after vagotomy and pyloroplasty than after vagotomy and gastroenterostomy.Recurrent ulceration was commoner after vagotomy and pyloroplasty than after all the other operations, the incidence of proved and suspected recurrent ulcers being respectively 6.7 and 7.3% after vagotomy and pyloroplasty, but only 2.5 and 5.9% after vagotomy and gastroenterostomy, 0 and 5.2% after vagotomy and antrectomy, and 0.9 and 3.7% after subtotal gastrectomy. The differences between vagotomy and pyloroplasty and vagotomy and antrectomy or subtotal gastrectomy are statistically significant, but those between vagotomy and pyloroplasty and vagotomy and gastroenterostomy are not.Overall assessment (Visick grading) of the outcome gave poorer results after vagotomy and pyloroplasty than after any other operation, with 14% of category IV cases after vagotomy and pyloroplasty, 11% after vagotomy and gastroenterostomy, 8% after vagotomy and antrectomy, and 6% after subtotal gastrectomy-differences that are significant between vagotomy and pyloroplasty and vagotomy and antrectomy or subtotal gastrectomy but not between vagotomy and pyloroplasty and vagotomy and gastroenterostomy.In the light of these findings it is suggested that truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty has not lived up to expectations and its place as the currently most popular procedure in the elective surgical treatment of duodenal ulcer should be reconsidered.

A study of total serum alkaline phosphatase activity in men following partial gastrectomy.

Total serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP) activity has been measured in 463 men with partial gastrectomy (Polya type), and in a control group of 271 men with vagotomy with pyloroplasty or gastroenterostomy. An analysis of variance of the values in the range of 3.0 to 11.5 KA units/100 ml showed that the enzyme serum activity is influenced by three independent factors: age, ABO blood group, and the type of operation. Marginally raised levels (12.0-17.0 KA units/100 ml) were found to be affected by the same factors, and it was concluded that these levels do not, usually, indicate either bone or liver disease. In 18 men the total serum alkaline phosphatase was over 17.0 KA units: 16 had Paget's disease of bone, and two had liver disease.