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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffMost cases of dumping syndrome improve with nutritional measures alone. However, if changing your diet doesn't relieve your symptoms, your doctor may advise medications or surgery to slow the emptying of your stomach's contents.
Dietary changes
Here are some dietary treatment strategies that your doctor may recommend:
- Eat smaller meals. Try consuming about six small meals a day rather than three larger ones.
- Avoid fluids with meals. Drink liquids only between meals.
- Change the makeup of your diet. Consume more low-carbohydrate foods. In particular, concentrate on a diet low in simple carbohydrates, such as sugar (found in sweets like candy, cookies and cakes). Read labels on packaged food before buying, with the goal of not only avoiding foods with sugar in their ingredients list, but also looking for (and staying away from) alternative names for sugar, such as glucose, sucrose, fructose, dextrose, honey and corn syrup. Artificial sweeteners are acceptable alternatives. Consume more protein in your diet and adopt a higher fiber diet.
- Increase pectin intake. Pectin is found in many fruits, such as peaches, apples and plums, as well as in some fiber supplements. It can delay the absorption of carbohydrates in the small intestine.
- Stay away from acidic foods. Tomatoes and citrus fruits are harder for some people to digest.
- Use low-fat cooking methods. Prepare meat and other foods by broiling, baking or grilling.
- Consume adequate vitamins, iron and calcium. These can sometimes become depleted in the aftermath of stomach surgery. Discuss this nutritional issue with a registered dietitian.
- Lie down after eating. This may slow down the movement of food into your intestines.
Even with dietary changes, you may continue to experience severe symptoms associated with dumping syndrome.
Medications
Your doctor may prescribe certain medications to slow the passage of food out of your stomach, and relieve the signs and symptoms associated with dumping syndrome. These drugs are most appropriate for people with severe signs and symptoms, and they don't work for everyone.
The medications that doctors most frequently prescribe are:
- Acarbose (Precose). This medication delays the digestion of carbohydrates. Doctors prescribe it most often for the management of type 2 diabetes, and it has also been found to be effective in people with late-onset dumping syndrome. Side effects may include sweating, headaches, pallor, sudden hunger and weakness.
- Octreotide (Sandostatin). This anti-diarrheal drug can slow down the emptying of food into the intestine. You take this drug by injecting it under your skin (subcutaneously). Be sure to talk with your doctor about the proper way to self-administer the drug, including optimal choices for injection sites. Long-acting formulations of this medication are available. Because octreotide carries the risk of side effects (diarrhea, bulky stools, gallstones, flatulence, bloating) in some people, doctors recommend it only for people who haven't responded to other treatments.
Surgery
Doctors use a number of surgical procedures to treat severe cases resistant to more-conservative approaches. Most of these operations are reconstructive techniques, such as reconstructing the pylorus, or they're intended to reverse gastric bypass surgery.
