Long-term gastric pacing with a portable gastric pacemaker to aid gastric emptying in humans

Previous studies have shown that electrical stimulation of the stomach may improve gastric emptying. However, none of the previous studies has reported the optimization of pacing parameters and these studies were only performed for short periods using a stationary stimulator. The aim of this study was to further investigate the effect of long-term gastric pacing with a portable stimulator on gastric emptying in patients with gastroparesis. A series of experiments with different pacing parameters were conducted in 5 patients with gastroparesis to optimize the performance of the gastric pacing. A portable gastric pacemaker was made for each patient to use at home daily for one month. Compared with the results before pacing, significant improvement of gastric emptying was achieved after long-term pacing.