Background/aims: Following truncal vagotomy, a heightened contractile response of the gallbladder to cholecystokinin (CCK) has been reported in patients. We investigated whether the gallbladder responsiveness to the CCK analog cerulein is also affected in patients with a highly selective vagotomy (HSV) and in duodenal ulcer patients, since most patients had truncal vagotomy for recurrent peptic ulcer disease.
Materials and methods: Gallbladder emptying (cholescintigraphy) and plasma cholecystokinin like immunoreactivity (CCK-LI) levels were studied during infusion of graded doses of the CCK analog cerulein.
Results: In duodenal ulcer patients (n = 9), patients with HSV (n = 9), patients with truncal vagotomy (n = 9) and control subjects (n = 9), infusion of stepwise increasing doses of cerulein (1-16 ng.kg-1.h-1) induced dose related changes in plasma CCK-LI. In patients with truncal vagotomy, the gallbladder contraction in response to 1, 2 and 4 ng.kg-1.h-1 of cerulein was significantly increased over controls; whereas the gallbladder contraction to cerulein in duodenal ulcer patients and patients with HSV was not significantly different from controls.
Conclusions: Thus, in patients with truncal vagotomy, gallbladder contractile response to CCK is significantly enhanced, possibly due to denervation of hepatic vagal branches since gallbladder contraction after CCK infusion shows no difference between post HSV or duodenal ulcer patients and the controls.