Psychosomatic Medicine 17:227-231 (1955)
© 1955 American Psychosomatic Society

Effects of Vagotomy on Autonomic Balance

¹ Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California

Forty peptic ulcer patients receiving a vagotomy and 14 control subjects receiving other types of operations were measured preoperatively and postoperatively on 12 physiologic variables controlled in part by the autonomic nervous system. An index of autonomic balance was computed for each subject and the two groups were compared on the 12 variables and on the index. Analysis of the results led to the following conclusions:

Vagotomy, as compared to control operations, produces a significant increase in saliva output, dermographia latency, and heart period and a significant decrease in volar sweating, sublingual temperature, finger temperature, and pupil diameter.

Vagotomy produces significantly less change in diastolic blood pressure than do control operations.

Vagotomy produces a marked and significant change in the Wenger index of autonomic balance as compared to control operations, the change being in the direction of increased parasympathetic (or decreased sympathetic) nervous system activity.