Twenty-two patients developed one or more aortoenteric fistulae following aortic reconstruction with a dacron graft. Endoscopy was performed on 11 of these patients on 17 occasions and a preoperative diagnosis was made in eight patients. Fistulous communication was most common between the aorta and duodenum (60%), and a further 30% penetrated into the jejunum and ileum. The mean period from operation to time of diagnosis was 36 months and the mean length of bleeding was 25 days, allowing ample time for preoperative evaluation. Surgery was performed on 21 of the 22 patients with an overall mortality of 77%. The best surgical results were obtained with graft resection, closure of the aorta, and maintenance of circulation by an axillofemoral graft.

No abstract

Gastric emptying studies were performed on six healthy volunteers using a radioisotope test meal. Each subject was studied three times (control, morphine 7.5 mg, naloxone 2 mg). Both intravenous morphine and intravenous naloxone significantly delayed gastric emptying when compared with the control study. These results suggest that opiate receptors, opiate neurones, and enkephalin may regulate gastric motility and that under certain circumstances naloxone may act as an opiate agonist.