Source: DGNews  |  Posted 8 years ago

By Jerry Ingram

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- June 20, 2003 -- Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) might decrease mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) who are diagnosed with gastroparesis (GP), researchers reported here on June 15th at the 63rd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

"Patients we see with gastroparesis (GP) have symptoms that are often quite severe. GES actually improves all the parameters that we could measure. Patients tend to feel better. We also note decreased mortality among these patients," said investigator Kevin Blanchard, MD, a research fellow in gastroenterology at University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson, United States.

Gastric electrical stimulation is the application of a small electrical current to the stomach that causes the stomach muscle to contract.

Dr. Blanchard and co-investigators enrolled 41 patients and grouped them as follows: 5 men and 4 women with DM and GP, mean age of 48.4 years, and 6 men and 26 women with idiopathic GP, mean age 37.9 years. Patients received GES up to 8 years in follow-up (range 2 to 8 years).

The researchers compared patients' baseline weekly vomiting frequency score (WVFS, 0-4), Gastrointestinal Total Symptom score (TSS, 0-50) and solid gastric emptying to the latest follow-up data. They compared patient mortality data with a control group of 5 men and 28 women with GP, mean age 42 years, who were treated with antiemetics and gastrokinetics and who were followed for up to 10 yrs (range 7 to 10 yrs).

The WVFS and TTS improved for the whole group by a mean of 53.3% (P<0.01). The DM subgroup improved significantly by a mean of 73.9% (P<0.01). Solid gastric emptying also improved in the whole group by a mean of 56.3% (P<0.01), but was less in the DM subgroup (mean 49.8%).

Mortality for the GES patients was 22% in the DM group and 6% in the idiopathic GP group. In the control group, mortality was 43% in the DM group and 13% in the idiopathic patients.

"We are hopeful that treatment with gastric electric stimulation of this patient population can offer a valid way of alleviating more severe symptoms when nothing else seems to work," said Dr. Blanchard.

[Study title: Effects of Gastric Electrical Stimulation on Outcome and Mortality of Diabetic Gastroparesis. Abstract 822]