the.com/pylorus
the bouncer of your stomach, deciding which slurry is cleared for the gut club
means The pylorus is the ring of muscle at the lower end of the stomach that controls the flow of partly digested food into the small intestine.
from From Greek 'pyloros,' meaning 'gatekeeper' — itself built from 'pyle' (gate) plus 'ouros' (watcher, guard). Greek anatomists saw the stomach's exit as a literal doorway with a sentry posted at it, a metaphor so apt it stuck for more than two thousand years. The same 'pyle' (gate) shows up in the city name Thermopylae, the famous 'hot gates' where the Spartans made their stand.
- name origin
- Greek for gatekeeper, the smallest of doormen
- valve squad
- a ring of muscle controlling stomach exit
- size matters
- only lets tiny particles pass downstream
- failure mode
- infant pyloric stenosis causes projectile vomiting
- timing
- strict about liquids before solids leaving the stomach
pyloric stenosis — infantile condition affecting the pylorus muscle, occurs in 1-3 per 1,000 infants, most common in males aged 3-5 weeks
pylorus surgery — pyloromyotomy procedure developed by ramstedt in 1912 to treat pyloric stenosis by dividing the pyloric muscle