Perforation of the stomach in childhood

Four cases of gastric perforation are studied in three male newborns and in a 14-year-old female out of 1949 autopsies performed from 1969 to 1978 at the Pathology Department of Hospital Infantil de Mexico. All four cases showed clinical signs of respiratory failure and anatomical pulmonary lesions; this last feature led in all cases to hypoxia. Based on these data and on the opinion of several authors, hypoxia is believed to be the most important datum in the pathogenesis of gastric perforation in childhood.