Aetiology

Adult pyloric stenosis occurs most commonly as a result of peptic ulceration, where at first fibrotic scarring is compensated by dilatation and hypertrophy of the stomach muscle. The process of compensation eventually fails to keep pace - similar to the failure of a hypertrophic ventricle to pump through a stenosed valve. This sort of obstruction is not specific to the pylorus.

Other causes of pyloric stenosis include:

• tumour, e.g. cancer of the stomach, commonly, carcinoma of the antrum; rarely, Hodgkin's disease
• vagotomy, used in the treatment of intractable gastric ulceration. A pyloroplasty is performed in an effort to prevent this.

Reference

1. Zarineh A, Leon ME, Saad RS, et al. Idiopathic hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in an adult, a potential mimic of gastric carcinoma. Patholog Res Int. 2010;2010:614280.