Regeneration of the vagus nerve after highly selective vagotomy, an autoradiographic study in the ferret stomach .

Abstract

This study investigates the regeneration of the vagal nerve fibres after highly selective vagotomy in the ferret stomach by using the autoradiographic technique. Autoradiographic examination of the body of the stomach in the acute experimental animals has failed to show any labelled nerve fibres after highly selective vagotomy while the pylorus has shown many labelled nerve fibres . These observations indicate that the highly selective vagotomy has been performed properly and adequately. Examination of the abdomen , three months after highly selective vagotomy in the chronic experimental animals showed, regenerated vagal nerve fibres bypassing the vagotomy ligatures to supply the stomach . After injection of these chronic animals with tritiated leucine into the vagal dorsal motor nucleus , labelled nerve fibres were seen in the body of the stomach . This confirmed that the regenerated nerve fibres of the vagus nerve have spread to supply the body of the stomach . This phenomenon of regeneration of the vagus nerve may explain the high rate of incidence of recurrent peptic.ul