Effect of Local Anesthetics on the Isolated Antrum of the Stomach in Dogs

¹ From the Department of Surgery, University of California Medical Center, Los Angeles, California

Cocaine inhibits the release of gastrin by the pyloric antrum. Dogs were prepared with isolated antrum pouches as well as Heidenhain pouches. Other local anesthetics, Xylocaine, Pontocaine and Nupercaine, were placed in the isolated antrum. The release of gastrin was inhibited to both chemical and mechanical stimuli. Local anesthetic applied to the isolated antrum had no effect on its motility. It is concluded that cocaine inhibits the antrum through its anesthetic rather than its vaso-constrictor property and that this inhibition is not mediated through a motility suppression.