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An Alternative Surgical Therapy for Patients With Gastroparesis

Rodney J. Mason, PhD, MD; John Lipham, MD; Gordon Eckerling, MD; Alan Schwartz, MD; Tom R. DeMeester, MD

Arch Surg. 2005;140:841-848.

Hypothesis  Gastric electrical stimulation is an alternative to gastrectomy in patients with refractory gastroparesis.

Design  Retrospective case series with a median follow-up of 20 months.

Settings  A tertiary care university hospital and a university-affiliated community hospital.

Patients  Twenty-nine patients (22 women, 7 men; median age, 39 years; age range, 20-87 years) with debilitating gastroparesis who were referred for gastrectomy from December 10, 2001, through October 1, 2004. Twenty-four patients had type 1 diabetic gastroparesis and 5 patients had idiopathic gastroparesis.

Interventions  Placement of a gastric stimulator device laparoscopically in 24 patients and by laparotomy in 5 patients.

Main Outcome Measures  Morbidity and mortality of the procedure, symptom control, hospital readmissions, need for supplemental nutritional support, body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters), and gastric emptying.

Results  Follow-up results were available in 27 patients. There was no 30-day mortality or morbidity in 4 patients. The median hospital stay was 3 days. All of the patients tolerated an oral diet at discharge. Symptom control was excellent to good in 19 patients. Nutritional support was discontinued in the 19 patients who were dependent on supplemental feeding before the procedure (P<.001). The median body mass index improved significantly (22.9 preoperatively vs 25.1 postoperatively; P = .006). The median gastric emptying rate (percentage per minute) was measured in 15 of the 27 patients postoperatively and showed significant improvement (0.17% per minute preoperatively vs 0.38% per minute postoperatively; P<.001). Additional procedures were required in 4 patients (owing to poor outcome in 3 patients).

Conclusions  Gastric electrical stimulation ameliorated symptoms, returned patients to normal oral nutritional intake, increased body mass index, improved gastric emptying rates, and is an alternative to gastrectomy in patients with end-stage gastric disease.

Author Affiliations: Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Drs Mason, Lipham, and DeMeester); and Digestive Health Center, Coastal Community Hospital, Santa Ana, Calif (Drs Eckerling and Schwartz).

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