Human colonic smooth muscle electrical activity during and
following recovery from postoperative ileus.
Condon, Robert E., Verne E. Cowles, Alvaro A. B. Ferraz, Senol
Carilli, Mark E. Carlson, Kirk Ludwig, Ercument Tekin, Kenan Ulualp,
Fikret Ezberci, Yutaka Shoji, Philip Isherwood, Constantine T.
Frantzides, William J. Schulte.
Department of Surgery, the Digestive Disease Research Center, and
the Clinical Research Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, and the
Surgical Research Service, Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical
Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53226
APStracts 2:0091G, 1995.
Colon smooth muscle electrical control (ECA) and response (ERA)
activities were recorded for up to 4 weeks postoperatively from 48
patients following major abdominal operations. Bipolar electrodes
were implanted into right and left colon circular muscle,
exteriorized through the flanks, and signals tape-recorded for 2-24
hrs daily beginning on the first postoperative day. A computer
program was used for data reduction and analysis. Recorded signals
were digitized and filtered. The ECA frequency components were
identified by fast Fourier transformation, and their relative tenancy
in low, mid and high frequency ranges determined. Short and long ERA
burst duration and frequency, and number and velocity of propagating
long ERA bursts, were determined. ECA was omnipresent and exhibited a
downshift of the dominant frequency from the mid to the low range as
recovery from postoperative ileus progressed. Concurrently, first in
the right and then in the left colon, the frequency of long ERA
bursts increased followed by the appearance of propagating long ERA.
After the sixth postoperative day, no further significant changes in
parameters of colon electrical activity occurred with time.
Received 17 May 1994; accepted in final form 29 March 1995.
APS Manuscript Number G184-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 16 May 1995.