title: Effects of glutamine on gastrointestinal motor activity in patients following gastric surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Postoperative ileus (POI) is one of the most common complications of gastrointestinal surgery. The present study was performed to evaluate the effects of glutamine administration on POI after gastric surgery in humans.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were 31 patients who underwent partial distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer and who were randomly assigned to one of two groups based on postoperative treatment: the glutamine group (3 g/day) and the control group. Manometric recording was done 12 days after surgery, and plasma glutamine concentrations were measured preoperatively and on postoperative day 12.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Motor activities of the duodenum in the glutamine group were significantly greater than those of the control group in the interdigestive state. The incidence of phase III motor activity (interdigestive migrating motor contractions) in the glutamine group was significantly higher than that in the control group (60 versus 19%). The glutamine group showed a significantly smaller decrease of plasma glutamine levels compared with the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Glutamine could act as a motility-recovery agent after gastrectomy in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Gunma University, 3-39-15, Showa-machi, Maebashi, 371-8511, Japan. emochiki@showa.gunma-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Erito
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mochiki
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yanai
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Toyomasu
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Andoh
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuwano
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000187:drug effects*; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000187:drug effects; D005973:Glutamine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008365:Manometry; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000379:methods; D012016:Reference Values; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D005973:Glutamine