Pylorus: responses of the non-medically-trained only, please!

[ladelfina]

This is the kick-off to a couple of threads I'm going to be posting about "medical mysteries and superstitions" that I have come across during my time in Italy.

I would hazard to say that essentially ALL Italians absolutely heed the "piloro", as they call it, a body part that I had never heard of before coming here, despite being a biology major in college. They would answer D/#4.

After the poll has run for a day or two, I'll be back to tell you more.

[poboy]

My oldest son had surgery due too pyloric stenosis at age three weeks. Long time ago. Have not thought about that for many years.

[Gumby]

Didn't this feature quite prominently in A Confederacy of Dunces ?

[Nords]

I thought you were talking about a pelorus!

I wonder how the Italians feel about helicobacter...

[ladelfina]

Okaay.. fresh off the "digestion" thread, I'll update you with the skinny on the pylorus, which here is called the piloro.

It's the valve between the stomach and the intestine or rather the duodenum. A lot of Italians seem to pay close attention to the piloro, and think that cold drinks will send it into spasms. I read a funny post by another ex-pat that described her crank neighbor crashing her garden party, shouting that "the Americans are going to kill us all with their iced beverages!!!"

Gelato is immune from this piloro effect, however, and is admissible.

They have similarly strong feelings about eating and going into the water (not just swimming). The consensus seems to be that it not safe to wait 20 minutes or even an hour; 2 to 3 hours or again, you're risking death!


An Italian expression that means "getting on my nerves" is "stare sul piloro".. "that guy really gets on my pylorus!!"

[MooreBonds]

Originally Posted by ladelfina

It's the valve between the stomach and the intestine or rather the duodenum. A lot of Italians seem to pay close attention to the piloro, and think that cold drinks will send it into spasms. I read a funny post by another ex-pat that described her crank neighbor crashing her garden party, shouting that "the Americans are going to kill us all with their iced beverages!!!"

My recently born nephew (Dec 06) actually suffered from an enlarged pylorus.

At age 5 weeks, he started to spit up an awful lot of his milk. After so many days, his parents took him to the doctor. Soon after, they admitted him to the hospital, and said that his pylorus was probably enlarged, such that his stomach couldn't push the food through the pylorus into his intestines. When his stomach pushed down, the pylorus stayed clamped shut. The resulting pressure forced the contents of his stomach out of his mouth at quite a forceful clip.

The surgery took only a matter of minutes. He made a fairly quick recovery afterwards, and continued on his growth spurt. The doctor said that apparently the condition's incident rate is something like 1:1,000 or so. His pylorus muscle was approximately 5x normal size. The cure was to simply cut out a vast majority of it and bring it back to the normal size.