Quantitative assessment of duodenogastric reflux after vagotomy with or without pyloroplasty-A clinical investigation.

The experiment consists in intravenous infusion of 99mTc-Hepatobida, fractioned aspiration of the gastric juice by means of a tube and measurement of radioactivity in the aspirated liquid. Patients are fasting for at least twelve hours and tests are started early in the morning. 5 mCi of 99mTc-Hepatobida are injected intravenously. Thereupon gastric juice is collected by means of a gastric tube every ten min during 90 min. Duodenogastric reflux is provoked by installing 100 ml of Intralipid. Sampling of gastric contents is continued as above. Radioactivities in the aspirate are compared in five patients before operation, after truncal vagotomy with pyloroplasty, after highly selective vagotomy without pyloroplasty and after highly selective vagotomy without pyloroplasty. There is no typical pattern for either type of operation. We suggest that motor antral activity is more important than pyloric function.