Intra-Abdominal Pressure

Abstract

<h3>Introduction</h3> INCREASED intra-abdominal pressure has long been considered an important factor in the etiology of hernias of all types. By common concept, straining at lifting is most often incriminated as the incident, which caused the appearance of the hernia. This is an important consideration in industrial liability. In this experiment, the change in intra-abdominal pressure produced by lifting weights with different techniques was compared with the changes produced by various physiological maneuvers. The latter consistently produced greater pressures than weight lifting. <h3>Method</h3> A total of 50 male patients, with varied diagnoses, from a general surgical ward, were utilized in this experiment. No bowel preparation was used. The change in intra-abdominal pressure was measured by inserting a rectal tube, with a condom tied over its end, at least 15 cm into the rectum. This in turn was connected by a Y tube to an air pump and a mercury manometer (see