Abstract

Investigations were carried out in man and dog to study the validity of Cannon's law of denervation supersensitivity in relation to parasympathetic denervation of the stomach. Subthreshold doses of carbachol did not accelerate gastric emptying before vagotomy but caused a significant increase in the rate of gastric emptying after vagotomy. These findings may be relevant to aberrations of gastrointestinal motility after vagotomy and may provide the basis of a test for completeness of gastric vagotomy.