The Mechanism of Pyloric Stenosis and Its Relationship to Preoperative Preparation

Abstract

Pyloric stenosis, an ever-present problem in the care of infants, has been generally well understood so far as the principles of diagnosis and operative management are concerned. Recent years, however, have seen an increasing series of extravagant claims being made for particular regimens related to parenteral fluid therapy. The glowing terms in which some of these rather complex programs are described led us to the conclusion that it might be worth while to compare these results with a series in which parenteral fluids, other than blood, have rarely been used. In order to evaluate the situation, the last 75 consecutive staff cases and the last 50 consecutive private cases (exclusive of my own) were selected from the records of the Louisville Children's Hospital. Hypertrophic pyloric stenosis results from mechanical blockage of the stomach outlet by hypertrophy of the circular muscle fibers of the pylorus combined with edema of the mucosa