The "electrical way" to cure gastroparesis

The treatment of gastroparesis recently received a heavy blow from the restrictions on the use of the prokinetic drug cisapride, but, fortunately, at the same time, a nonpharmacological approach, such as gastric electrical stimulation, came up again with new techniques. After an ultra-decennial experimentation with a large variety of electrical stimuli delivered to the gastric wall of animals and patients with gastroparesis, three principal methods are available at the moment: gastric electrical pacing, high-frequency gastric electrical stimulation, and sequential neural electrical stimulation. The first method aims to reset a regular slow-wave rhythm, but is unable to re-establish efficient contractions and a normal gastric emptying. High-frequency gastric electrical stimulation, although inadequate to restore a normal gastric emptying, nevertheless strikingly improves the dyspeptic symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting, giving the patients a better quality of life and a more satisfactory nutritional status. The last method, neural electrical gastric stimulation, consists of a microprocessor-controlled sequential activation of a series of annular electrodes which encircle the distal two thirds of the stomach and induce propagated contractions causing a forceful emptying of the gastric content. The latter method is the most promising, but it has so far only been tested in animals and would need to be tested in patients with gastroparesis before it can be used as a solution for this disease. All the aforementioned clinical studies, however, are not controlled and nearly all were published in abstract form. Therefore, further controlled trials are needed to establish which of these techniques is more useful for the treatment of gastroparesis.