Gastric Blood Supply Research Articles

Arterial vasculature of the stomach and oncologic gastrectomies.

Preoperative knowledge of the gastric arterial blood-supply with special regard to anatomic anomalies is desirable for a correct surgical approach to this viscus and for the reduction of intra- and postoperative complication rates. The authors report their experience with the use of preoperative digital angiography in the evaluation of 46 consecutive patients undergoing gastric cancer surgery. Twenty of these (43.5%) presented a vascular anatomy different from the normal pattern. In 6 (13%), a double arterial anomaly was detected. Some anatomic anomalies of the celiac axis and superior mesenteric artery are described in relation to operative procedures during oncologic gastrectomies.

A gastric acid secretion model

A theory of gastric acid production and self-protection is formulated mathematically and examined for clinical and experimental correlations, implications, and predictions using analytic and numerical techniques. In our model, gastric acid secretion in the stomach, as represented by an archetypal gastron, consists of two chambers, circulatory and luminal, connected by two different regions of ion exchange. The capillary circulation of the gastric mucosa is arranged in arterial-venous arcades which pass from the gastric glands up to the surface epithelial lining of the lumen; therefore the upstream region of the capillary chamber communicates with oxyntic cells, while the downstream region communicates with epithelial cells. Both cell types abut the gastric lumen. Ion currents across the upstream region are calculated from a steady-state oxyntic cell model with active ion transport, while the downstream ion fluxes are (facilitated) diffusion driven or secondarily active. Water transport is considered iso-osmotic. The steady-state model is solved in closed form for low gastric lumen pH. A wide variety of previously performed static and dynamic experiments on ion and CO2 transport in the gastric lumen and gastric blood supply are for the first time correlated with each other for an (at least) semiquantitative test of current concepts of gastric acid secretion and for the purpose of model verification. Agreement with the data is reported with a few outstanding and instructive exceptions. Model predictions and implications are also discussed.

Luminal acid reduces gastric mucosal blood flow in the ischemic stomach

Luminal gastric acid is essential for the formation of acute gastric mucosal lesions during ischemia. The mechanism by which luminal acid promotes gastric injury is, however, unclear. We investigated the effect of exogenous luminal acid on gastric mucosal blood flow using the radiolabeled microsphere technique. In rats with intact gastric blood supply application of exogenous luminal acid increased blood flow to the mucosa of the corpus and antrum. However, after ligation of the left gastric artery, which compromised mucosal blood flow to the corpus, application of luminal exogenous acid further decreased blood flow to the corpus. This indicates that the ability of the normal stomach to respond to luminal acidification with an increase in blood flow, which is thought to support clearance of back diffusing H +, is reversed in the ischemic stomach. The exposure to high luminal H + concentrations may therefore promote gross injury in the ischemic stomach by further compromising nutritional mucosal blood flow.

Conservation of the spleen with distal pancreatectomy.

This report describes a rapid, easy, and safe means of saving the spleen while resecting or fully mobilizing the pancreatic tail. The pancreas is separated from the spleen by dividing the splenic artery and vein distal to the tip of the pancreas. The spleen survives on the short gastric vessels, which are carefully preserved. The technique has been applied successfully in 22 of 25 consecutive patients with chronic pancreatitis (n = 13), acute pancreatitis and pancreatic necrosis (n = 3), cystic neoplasm of the pancreas (n = 4), islet cell tumor (n = 2), and ductal adenocarcinoma (n = 3). The spleen could not be saved in three patients because of splenic hilar involvement by tumor or scar. Normal postoperative blood cell counts and spleen scans proved splenic viability and function. There was only one complication, a late splenic abscess that developed in a spleen of twice-normal size. It is concluded that in most instances the distal pancreas can be mobilized for resection or inspection without the need for splenectomy. Splenomegaly may be a contraindication because the short-vessel gastric blood supply may be inadequate to nourish the increased tissue mass. The technique is applicable to the treatment of pancreatic tumors, trauma, and pancreatitis.

GASTRIC SECRETION

In four dogs with transplanted gastric pouches unusual phenomena were observed during lactation. The preparation and character of these pouches have been described in detail in two previous papers.1In brief, the operation was done in two stages. In the first, a portion of the body along the greater curvature was cut away from the stomach and then sutured to form a pouch. This pouch was transplanted to a space in the subcutaneous tissues. The gastric blood supply to the pouch was left intact. At a second operation from three weeks to several months later, these vessels were severed, leaving the pouch dependent on a new blood supply from the abdominal wall. A second type of pouch consisted only of mucous membrane and submucosa, the muscular coats, including the plexus of Auerbach, having been removed. The secretion of these pouches has already been reported in the papers mentioned.1