Demonstration of the functional anatomy of the canine gastric antrum: I. Operative technics requiring gastrotomy

Abstract

Technics are described for visual delineation of the corpus-antrum boundary in canine stomachs. These technics involve various dye-stuffs, neutral red, toluidine blue, Congo red, and fluorescein. This study shows that differences in intravenous dye excretion in the gastric corpus as compared with the gastric antrum can be exploited to reveal anatomic limits of the antrum, Color differences obtained in this way were observed to correspond to areas of different pH values, but the color differences result basically from the presence or absence of dye excretion which is a major feature of this study. Gastric color boundaries from dyestuffs were marked and compared with histologic corpusantrum boundaries. Color boundaries obtained are accurate and reproducible. Furthermore, color boundaries are easily seen; use of a layer of gauze upon gastric mucosa provides a white background against which dyestuffs are vivid. Some comparative features of these dyestuffs are discussed. Possible applicability of these technics includes operations in which the gastric corpus and antrum are to be separated or in which the corpus-antrum boundary is to be marked for future reference in experiments.