Disturbed Solid-Phase Gastric Emptying in Functional Dyspepsia (A Meta-Analysis)

Functional dyspepsia is a common disorder witha diverse pathophysiological background, but the role ofmotility disorders in functional dyspepsia remainsunclear. We aimed to quantify the relationship between disturbed gastric emptying andfunctional dyspepsia, using a meta-analytic approach.Through a structured literature search of Medline andEmbase from 1983 to 1996, we selected all studies inwhich scintigraphic solid-phase gastric emptying wasmeasured in both functional dyspeptic patients andcontrols. Seventeen studies involving 868 dyspepticpatients and 397 controls were pooled. Gastric emptying in patients with functional dyspepsia was 1.46(1.23-1.69) times slower than controls; the proportionof patients with abnormally slow emptying was either 37%(34-40%, simple numeric pooling) or 39% (29-49%,weighted pooling). We conclude that gastric emptying ofsolids in patients with functional dyspepsia is 1.5times slower than in healthy controls and that asignificant delay of emptying is present in almost 40% of patients with functionaldyspepsia.