Distal small bowel motility and lipid absorption in patients following abdominal aortic aneurysm repair surgery

Figure 1 Schematic representation of manometry recording periods in two patients: ventilated and fasting (gray), non-ventilated and fasting (white), non-ventilated and feeding (black); and analysis periods: early ventilation (EV) (1-5 h), early post-operative (EP) (20-24 h), early feeding (EF) (29-33 h), late feeding (LF) (53-57 h) and late post-operative (LP) (68-72 h).

Figure 2 Bursts recorded during fasting (early ventilation (EV) (1-5 h), early post-operative (EP) (20-24 h) and late post-operative (LP) (68-72 h)) and enteral feeding, in patients (gray shading) and healthy controls (black shading) (n = 7). Data are mean±SE. P < 0.0001 vs healthy fasting, P < 0.0001 vs healthy fed. early ventilation (n = 9), early post-operative (n = 7), enteral feeding (n = 8), late post-operative (n = 9).

Figure 3 Normal burst activity (% of total burst activity) recorded during fasting (early ventilation (EV) (1-5 h), early post-operative (EP) (20-24 h) and late post-operative (LP) (68-72 h)) and enteral feeding in patients (gray shading) and healthy control subjects (black shading) (n = 7). Data are mean±SE. P < 0.01 vs late post-operative. early ventilation (n = 9), early post-operative (n = 7), enteral feeding (n = 8), late post-operative (n = 9).

Figure 4 Sample patient small intestinal manometric tracing during fasting. A: d 1 showing characteristic disordered burst activity with simultaneous onset and retrograde propagation; B: d 3 bursting activity is less frequent and predominantly antegrade.

Figure 5 Area under the curve for percentage dose recovery of ¹³CO2 until 6 h after the start of the intraduodenal infusion on d 1 (n = 7) and d 3 (n = 4) post surgery in AAA repair patients and in healthy subjects (n = 8). P < 0.05 vs healthy. Data are mean±SE.