Abstract

Background:Advanced chronic hepatopathies are very often accompanied by pathologic changes in the stomach as well as functional disturbances affecting the upper gastrointestinal tract. They include ulceration, erosions, and congestive (portal) gastropathy), reported with increasing frequency. Some of these patients undergo surgical treatment to prevent recurrent esophageal variceal bleeding. Because of considerable differences in gastric hydrochloric acid secretion, its assessment was attempted in patients with hepatic cirrhosis and portal hypertension before (group II) and after (group III) non-shunt type surgical procedure. Material/Methods: The study was carried out in two groups of patients, consisting of 11 patients each, and a control group of 15 healthy volunteers. Subjects over 65 years of age, with concurrent chronic conditions, history of surgical procedures (except for Sugiura procedure) and treated with drugs affecting gastric secretion were excluded from the study. All the subjects qualified for the study underwent pH-metry with a DL70 pH-meter equipped with a glass electrode. Median pH (Me) and mean pH values (arithmetic mean, AM) from 24 h were used in analysis. Results:The following results were obtained – in the control group Me 1.57, AM. 1.97; in group II Me 2.04, AM 2.53. In the group of patients after Sugiura procedure Me was 2.83 and AM 3.12. No statistically significant differences in gastric secretion were found between the studied groups in statistical analysis using Cochran, Cox and Student-t tests. Conclusions: There are no statistically significant differences in gastric secretion determined by 24-hour pH-metry in patients with hepatic cirrhosis due to HBV infection and portal hypertension before and after non-shunt type Sugiura procedure.

Keywords: gastric acid secretion, hepatic cirrhosis