[Gastric myoelectric activity disturbance in patients with traumatic lesions of the brain stem].

The aim of the study was to evaluate effects of cranio-cerebral trauma on gastric myoelectric activity. Twenty four patients hospitalized in the Department of Neurotraumatology, Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University were compared with a control group of 16 healthy volunteers matched for gender and age. Their gastric myoelectric activity was measured using standard cutaneous electrodes with Synectics, a Swedish system of data storage and analysis. Results of the study were analyzed at the Department of Pathophysiology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University. In the electrogastrography (EGG) recording of the control group the proportions of time with bradygastria (0.5-2 cpm), normogastria (2-4 cpm) and tachygastria (4-10 cpm) were 11.6 +/- 8%, 86.2 +/- 9% and 2.16 +/- 1.5% respectively. The signal amplitude was 181 +/- 11.5 microV2. In patients with a severe head injury followed by intracranial hypertension III degree and cerebral coma (the Glasgow Coma Scale score 4-7 points), the proportion of bradygastria in the total recording time amounted to 46.5 +/- 8%. In these patients also the signal amplitude was found to increase up to 766 microV2 (p = 0.0007). Our results indicate that in patients comatose due to a posttraumatic brainstem injury, the function of the brain-gut link is altered. There is a severe disorder of the upper gut motility, associated with gastric dysrhythmia--bradygastria resulting from an increased cholinergic output. This leads to intestinal feeding intolerance.