The Institutional Review Board of the University of Mississippi Medical Center granted ethical approval for this work. Consecutive patients undergoing implantation with GES devices (Enterra, Medtronic, MN) were recruited and gave informed consent. All patients had been diagnosed with medically-refractory gastroparesis, confirmed by standardized scintigraphy testing (≥10% gastric retention of standard meal at 4 hours) [21 (link)], and were free of malignancy, primary eating disorders, or pregnancy. Demographic data, comorbidities, medical histories, and body mass index were recorded for each patient.
Symptom severity was assessed at baseline and post-implant as a total symptom score (TSS) for each patient. TSS was calculated by scoring five symptoms (pain, bloating/distension, nausea, vomiting, and early satiety) on a five-point Likert scale (0-absent, to 4-severe), which were then summed to yield the TSS, effectively an overall symptom severity metric out of a possible 20 points (0-absent, to 20-severe across all categories) [17 (link)].
Symptom severity was assessed at baseline and post-implant as a total symptom score (TSS) for each patient. TSS was calculated by scoring five symptoms (pain, bloating/distension, nausea, vomiting, and early satiety) on a five-point Likert scale (0-absent, to 4-severe), which were then summed to yield the TSS, effectively an overall symptom severity metric out of a possible 20 points (0-absent, to 20-severe across all categories) [17 (link)].
