PERITONITIS

Abstract

There has been a growing tendency in recent years to inject large quantities of fluids intravenously in the treatment of shock, peritonitis and intestinal obstruction. MacFee and Baldridge, 1 1930, reported their results in the treatment of such conditions by the intravenous injection of large amounts of physiologic solution of sodium chloride. They stated that: solution has been given intravenously in amounts ranging from 2000 cubic centimeters to 8000 cubic centimeters at a single injection. The usual amount required has been about 4500 cubic centimeters. Autopsy was performed recently on a patient who died of peritonitis and who had been given large amounts of salt solution intravenously. The peritonitis was generalized, and there was an unusually large amount of fluid in the peritoneal cavity. Following this autopsy it was feared that the extent of the peritonitis had been increased by the fluid that had been introduced and that the