Therapeutic effects of rhubarb on gastrointestinal failure

Table 1 Effects of rhubarb on stress ulcer accompanied with gastric hemorrhage

Group	n	Hemostasis	Rebleeding
H2-RBA	8	2	2
H2-RBA plus
Cold water and NE	12	5	5
Rhubarb	36	30ae	6

^eP < 0.005 vs H₂-receptor blocking agent group (RBA);

^aP < 0.05 vs H₂-RBA plus cold water and nonadrenaline (NE) group.

Table 2 Effects of rhubarb on toxic paralytic ileus

Group	n	Peristalsis	Diet tolerance
H2-RBA	27	0	0
Rhubarb	49	41e	24e

^eP < 0.005 vs H₂-RBA. RBA: Receptor blocking agent group.

Table 3 Effects of rhubarb on gastric intramural pH (pHi) (mean ± SD)

Group	n	pHi
Pre-treatment	27	7.018 ± 0.117
Control	21	7.335 ± 0.180
Post-treatment	24	7.305 ± 0.095f

^fP < 0.001 vs pre-treatment.

Table 4 Effects of rhubarb on rectal pHi (mean ± SD)

Group	n	pHi
Pre-treatment	27	7.071 ± 0.1860
Post-treatment	19	7.268 ± 0.0785f

^fP < 0.001 vs pre-treatment.

Table 5 Hemodynamic parameters and gastrointestinal pHi (n = 8, mean ± SD)

Parameter	Before rhubarb treatment
CI (L. min-1/m2)	5.06 ± 0.73
DO2 (ML. min-1)	977.75 ± 157.35
VO2 (ML. min-1)	375.86 ± 161.34
Gastric pHi	7.02 ± 0.11
Rectal pHi	7.04 ± 0.14

Table 6 Effects of the rhubarb on multiple organ dysfunction syndrome

Involved organs	n	Rhubarb treatment		Non-rhubarb treatment
		Sum	Surviving	Sum	Surviving
2	8	5	4	3	2
3	11	7	3	4	2
4	16	11	2	5	0