Small bowel motility and colonic transit are altered in dogs with moderaterenal failure

Although gastrointestinal complications are common in patients with renal d isease, the effects of renal dysfunction on bowel motility and gut transit times are not well known. We assessed gastrointestinal electromyographic ac tivity, gastric emptying rate, orocolonic transit time, oroanal transit tim e, and xylose absorption before and after surgically inducing a 66% decreas e in glomerular filtration rate in dogs. Moderate renal failure induced no gross or microscopic gastrointestinal lesions but caused a 16-42% increase in gastrointestinal motility indexes. We found a 24% decrease in the propag ation velocity of the myoelectrical migrating complex in the duodenojejunal segment, a 30% decrease in phase I duration in duodenal and jejunal region s, a 20% increase in the total irregular electrical activity of the small i ntestine, and a 22% increase in duration of the meal response in the duoden um and jejunum. Renal failure did not change xylose absorption, gastric emp tying rate, and orocolonic transit time but decreased colonic transit time by 38%. The mean weight of feces was increased. These results indicate that moderate renal failure alters duodenojejunal motility and decreases coloni c transit time.