Predictors of emesis and time to goal intake after pyloromyotomy: analysis from a prospective trial

Background: Emesis after pyloromyotomy for pyloric stenosis is a common clinical phenomenon and the limiting factor in time to goal feeds. The amount of emesis that can be expected after myotomy is unknown. No data have been published that equip caregivers with the ability to understand which patients are more likely to have emesis and take longer to advance to goal feeds after pyloromyotomy. Therefore, we performed analysis of prospective data obtained from a randomized trial to determine if outcome can be predicted from preoperative or intraoperative variables. Methods: The dataset was prospectively collected from a randomized trial comparing open to laparoscopic pyloromyotomy in 200 patients. All patients had serum electrolytes and sonographic pyloric measurement recorded upon presentation. The postoperative feeding schedule and criteria for stopping feeds was controlled by a standard computer entry order set. In this study, we used Pearson's correlation to evaluate the influence of patient variables, presenting electrolytes, and intraoperative variables against 2 outcome variables (postoperative emesis and time to goal feeds). Significance is defined as a P