Surgical Manipulation of the Gut Elicits an Intestinal Muscularis Inflammatory Response Resulting in Postsurgical Ileus

Abstract

The data support the hypothesis that the degree of gut paralysis to cholinergic stimulation is directly proportional to the degree of trauma, the activation of resident gut muscularis phagocytes, and the extent of cellular infiltration. Therefore, postsurgical ileus may be a result of an inflammatory response to minimal trauma in which the resident macrophages, activated by physical forces, set an inflammatory response into motion, leading to muscle dysfunction.