Fifty-five patients with delayed gastric emptying and the symptoms of nausea, vomiting, postprandial bloating and early satiety were treated with metoclopramide. Obstruction was excluded by upper endoscopy and standard upper gastrointestinal series. None were on medication known to retard gastric emptying. All patients had an abnormal barium burger radiologic study. Twenty-one patients had had previous vagotomy and drainage procedure, five had diabetic gastroparesis and 29 had idiopathic delayed gastric emptying. Metoclopramide significantly decreased the symptom scores of the surgical and idiopathic patients. When all patients were analyzed together, there was a significant improvement in both the metoclopramide and placebo treated patients. When, however, the improvement on metoclopramide was compared to the improvement on placebo, there was a significant metoclopramide effect beyond the placebo effect. Thus, metoclopramide is an effective agent in treating the symptom-complex of patients with delayed gastric emptying.