Gastric Acid Response to Sham Feeding before and after Resection of Antrum and Duodenal Bulb in Duodenal Ulcer Patients

Knutson, U. & Olbe, L. Gastric acid response to sham feeding before and after resection of antrum and duodenal bulb in duodenal ulcer patients. Scand. J. Gastroent. 1974, 9, 191-201. The gastric acid response to physiological vagal stimulation by 15-min sham feeding was studied in 25 duodenal ulcer patients with intact antrum and in 15 duodenal ulcer patients after resection of the antrum and duodenal bulb. In 5 patients sham fed both before and after the resection, the peak acid response to sham feeding was reduced by 61 % following the resection. The antrum-bulb resection reduced by 47 % the maximal acid response to Histalog or pentagastrin. In the non-resected patients the peak acid response to sham feeding amounted to 53 % of the maximal acid response to Histalog or pentagastrin while the post-resection relation was 33 %. The results suggest that vagal release of gastrin from the antrum-bulb region contributes to but is not essential for the gastric acid response to physiological vagal activation in the ulcer patient. Furthermore, the marked reduction of the vagally activated acid secretion following antrum-bulb resection in man seems mainly due to a general and irreversible - decline of the acid secretory capacity and only to a minor extent due to elimination of the acid stimulatory effect of vagally released gastrin from the antrum-bulb region.