In order to evaluate the contribution of the impairment of the gastric accommodation to distension to the abnormalities of the gastric emptying of a liquid meal, these functions were evaluated simultaneously in 20 duodenal ulcer patients after proximal gastric vagotomy and in 13 non-operated duodenal ulcer patients. Gastric accommodation was measured by recording intragastric pressure during intragastric instillation of 500 ml 10% dextrose and the gastric emptying of this solution was measured with the double-sample test meal with phenol red as unabsorbable marker. The intragastric volume remaining 10 min after the 500 ml 10% dextrose test meal was significantly (P less than 0.02) smaller in the post-vagotomy patients (range: 60.0 to 580.0 ml; median: 320.0 ml) than in the non-operated patients (range: 220.0 to 540.0 ml; median: 380.0 ml). There was no significant difference between the two groups for the half-life of the test meal in the stomach. Maximal intragastric pressure was significantly higher (P less than 0.02) in post-vagotomy patients (range: 3.3 to 14.5 mmHg; median: 8.7 mmHg) than in non-operated patients (range: 1.8 to 5.5 mmHg; median: 3.8 mmHg). There was no significant correlation between maximal intragastric pressure and volume remaining 10 min after the test meal or half-life values within any group. These results confirm other studies showing that the initial gastric emptying rate of a liquid meal is accelerated and the gastric accommodation to distension is impaired by proximal gastric vagotomy, while overall gastric emptying is not changed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)