GASTROENTEROLOGY ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
August 28, 2003
Maganti K, Onyemere K, Jones MP. Oral erythromycin and symptomatic relief of gastroparesis: A systematic review. Am J Gastroenterol 2003;98:259-263.
1. Erythromycin
a. acts via vagal stimulation
b. for gastroparesis, it is effective only as an I.V. preparation
c. enhances gastric emptying in normal subjects as well as those with
gastroparesis
d. it is a motilin agonist
e. induces phase II migrating motor complexes
True or False
2. The presence of delayed gastric emptying on scintigraphy correlates with symptoms in the majority of patients.
3. Oral erythromycin has proven to be effective in treating symptoms of gastric emptying delay after partial gastrectomy and vagotomy.
4. The efficacy of erythromycin for improvement of gastric emptying has been shown in well designed trials.
5. Acute administration of erythromycin is more potent in inducing gastric emptying than metoclopramide.
6. This article frequently misspelled metoclopramide as metaclopromide.
7. Erythromycin is effective in improving delayed gastric
emptying; its effectiveness in improving symptoms is less obvious.