GASTRIC EMPTYING IN NEWBORNS AND YOUNG INFANTS

ABSTRACT: Signer, E. and Fridrich, R. (University Children's Hospital and the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kantonsspital, Basel, Switzerland). Gastric emptying in newborns and houng infants. Acta Paediatr Stand, 64:525, 1975.–The rate of gastric emptying was measured in newborns and young infants by a new radio-isotopic method. 28 control babies and 6 infants with projectile vomiting were given a 50 ml standard milk feeding containing 15µCi of Indium-113m-microcolloid. The radioactivity in the stomach was counted at regular intervals with a gamma-camera. The gastric emptying followed an exponential pattern with a "half-life" of 87±29 minutes in 24 out of 28 control babies. In 6 patients with projectile vomiting gastric emptying was impaired severely. Three of them with hypertrophic pyloric stenosis showed complete stasis of gastric contents. Gastric emptying returned to normal 8–16 days after pyloromyotomy. It is suggested that the radioisotopic technique is helpful in evaluating the severity of pyloric stenosis and that it is of value in studies of the action of pharmacological substances on gastric emptying.