Jan Hendrik Louw and intestinal atresia – a personal quest in pediatric surgery

Jan Hendrik Louw pioneered the surgical management of congenital intestinal atresia, reducing mortality from 75% to below 10% through his technique of resecting the dilated proximal bowel segment. His mesenteric vascular accident hypothesis dominated understanding of jejunoileal atresia etiology for decades, though recent research has identified additional genetic and embryological factors.