Assessment of a new inlet device for use in gastric hypothermia.

The three years since the introduction of 'gastric freezing' by Wangensteen and his associates (Wangensteen, Peter, Nicoloff, Walder, Sosin, and Bernstein, 1962a; Wangensteen, Peter, Bernstein, Walder, Sosin, and Madsen, 1962b; Peter, Bernstein, Sosin, Madsen, Walder, and Wangensteen, 1962) have witnessed a mounting scepticism as regards its safety and efficacy (Mcllrath, Hallenbeck, Allen, Mann, Baldes, Brown, and Rovelstad, 1963; Blumgart, Kay, Naylor, and Kugler, 1964; Karacadag and Klotz, 1964; White, Hightower, and Adalid, 1964; Scott, Shull, O'Neill, and Richie (1964); Artz, McFarland, and Fitts, 1964; Lippman, Morgenstern, and Panish, 1964). It has been clearly shown (Blumgart et al., 1964; Lippman et al., 1964) that grossly uneven cooling of the stomach leading to focal freezing and subsequent gastric ulceration are mainly due to the standard system of inlet tubing which allows 'jetting' ofthe inflowing coolant against the balloon wall. A new system of inlet tubing is reported which eliminates this 'jetting' effect and produces more even cooling of the stomach without gross mucosal damage.