The gastric emptying of a liquid meal (10% dextrose solution) and a semi-solid meal (minced meat, peas, potatoes and milk) was measured in the sitting position; both meals were 400 ml. Duodenogastric reflux was assessed supine after intravenous injection of 75 MBq of 99 mTc HIDA and cholecystokinin. Patients were ajudged reflux positive (R+), or reflux negative (R-) by looking at gamma camera pictures. Thirty-two duodenal ulcer patients (DU), 22 patients after truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty (TV+P) and 21 after proximal gastric vagotomy (PGV) were studied. In DU sufferers the mean volume of early liquid emptying in R+ patients (74 ml) was similar to R- patients (78 ml). After TV+P early liquid emptying was greatly increased (mean 176 ml) but no difference was found between R+ and R- patients. After PGV excessive early emptying was less common but emptying was significantly greater in R+ patients (R+ mean = 132 ml, SD = 48 n = 8; R- mean = 63 ml, SD = 21, N = 13: t = 4.2 p less than 0.001). There was no difference in solid meal emptying between R+ and R- patients in any group.
A patient underwent simultaneous abdominal aortic prosthetic replacement and resection of a Meckel diverticulum. He then developed faecaloid breath. Later reoperation for aorto-enteric fistula cured halitosis. We conclude in retrospect that faecaloid breath may herald a secondary aorto-enteric fistula. A pathophysiological mechanism is suggested and discussed.
The use of laparoscopic surgery has increased rapidly. However, a technically feasible procedure is not automatically recommendable. Thus, if cholecystectomy and fundoplication are currently fully validated techniques, this does not hold true for gastroplasty and kidney harvesting for transplantation: these operations are feasible indeed but their efficacy remains to be proved. Laparoscopic oncology has been shown to be feasible too, but its efficacy has not been documented yet.
We operated 5 patients with the Budd-Chiari syndrome or veno-occlusive disease between 1984 and 1989 (2 porto-caval shunts, one Warren distal spleno-renal shunt, one meso-atrial shunt and one Le Veen peritoneo-jugular shunt). As liver transplantation is now part of the therapeutic armamentarium for these conditions, this paper reviews retrospectively the indications for surgery in these 5 patients.
