THE RATIONALE and the experimental base on which intraperitoneal drip for postoperative administration of fluids is founded were presented in previous papers.1 It was hoped that the customary methods of postoperative administration of fluids might be supplemented by the employment of intraperitoneal drip, if the following three rules were observed: (1) Instead of a rapid infusion, a slow drip is employed, (2) antibiotics are added for prophylactic purposes and (3) plastic tubing, without a needle, is used to exclude the danger of an injury of a vein.
Animal experimentation1 has shown that intraperitoneal administration of dextrose, isotonic sodium chloride and vitamin solutions, but not amino acids, is well tolerated, that the fluid is promptly absorbed and that the drip does not contribute to a spread of a localized infection within the abdominal cavity.
One more phase of the problem remained to be investigated before a clinical trial was