One hundred years of pyloric stenosis in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh

AimPyloric stenosis was first reported in 1717 and was treatable from the start of the 1900s. Our hospital opened in 1860. In this study we report the historical account of the management of pyloric stenosis in Edinburgh from 1910 to 2013.MethodHistoric discharge summaries, theatre records, and distinguished surgeons’ operation and lecture notes dating back to 1910 with regard to pyloric stenosis were identified and reviewed. We present this history and compare our contemporary data.ResultsIn February 1911, Harold Styles performed a pyloromyotomy, but did not report it at the time. However, the record of this operation and date were later published by Mason Brown in 1956. For the period 1926–1936, we report the management of 7 patients, of which only 3 survived. For the period 1947–1956, 515 patients were treated, with a mortality rate of 4.08%. Our current series for 1999–2012 has a mortality rate of zero and complication rate of 5.3%.ConclusionsDuring the period 1910 to present day in Edinburgh, pyloric stenosis has gone from being medically managed with bad outcomes to a condition with 100% survival. The only surgical advance has been the development of the Rammstedt pyloromyotomy. Of interest we document that a pyloromyotomy was performed here in February 1910. The improved outcome is mainly due to better understanding of the physiological disturbance in pyloric stenosis and advances in anaesthetics and microbiology.