Imaging diagnosis of hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in 119 patients during fifteen years

Hypertrophic stenosis of the pylorus is the partial or complete obstruction of the pylorus lumen, its muscles are so strongly thickened that gastric emptying is difficult. Although the diagnosis is basically clinical, imaging studies are decisive to confirm the disease. A retrospective descriptive study was carried out in 119 patients with clinical manifestations of hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, whose diagnosis was confirmed by imaging studies, at the "William Soler" University Pediatric Hospital from 2000 to 2015. The ultrasound measurements were the length of the pyloric channel ≥ 16mm in 95.8%, the wall of the pyloric muscle in 88.2% and pyloric olive diameter in 68.1% of the patients. In 90 children, the diagnosis was done by initial abdominal sonography. The remaining 29 were done barium upper gastrointestinal studies under fluoroscopic vision, observing the string sign in 100%, gastric dilatation in 72.4% and delayed gastric emptying in 58.6%. With a second positive abdominal sonography. Corroborating the diagnosis in the surgical act. Abdominal sonography was a highly positive and sensitive diagnostic study, with the length of the pyloric canal as the main ultrasound measurement and the string sign the major radiological finding.