The effect of erythromycin on gastrointestinal motility in subtotal gastrectomized patients

Abstract

Introduction: Our objective was to determine the effect of erythromycin to improve gastrointestinal motility in subtotal gastrectomized patients. We used radio-opaque Kolomark as an objective method.Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective, controlled clinical trial study of 24 patients. All patients underwent subtotal gastrectomy with 3 capsules containing Kolomarks (20 markers per 1 capsule) in the remnant stomach before anastomosis. From the day of the operation to the 2nd postoperative day, patients in the EM group began receiving 200mg of erythromycin intravenously for 30 minutes constantly. We counted the number of Kolomarks in the stomach, passed by stomach, in rectum, and in stool with serial simple abdominal x-ray films on the first postoperative day up to the 7th postoperative day.Results: The study population included 14 patients in the control group and 10 patients in the EM group. The two study groups were compared in terms of their characteristics including age, gender, past medical history, cancer stage, and operation type. No significant differences were found for the demographics between the two groups. We only found a significant difference for the number of Kolomarks passed by the stomach on the 3rd postoperative day (P = 0.026).Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that 200mg of EM intravenously infusion during the postoperative period induced rapid gastric emptying, although it did not improve gastrointestinal motility for the entire gastrointestinal tract in subtotal gastrectomized patients.