[Stomach dilatation-volvulus in the dog: current viewpoint and retrospective study in 160 patients]

Diagnosis and treatment of gastric dilatation-volvulus syndrome in the dog are described. A comparison of results obtained between 1984 and 1990 with results from 1977 to 1982 shows a significant decrease in mortality from 63% to 29%, and in the recurrence rate from 82% to 15%. Mortality in patients in which the stomach was decompressed before referral did not differ from that in patients in which decompression was not performed. Two methods of fixation of the pyloric antrum to the abdominal wall are compared. Complications and recurrence rates after tube gastrostomy do not differ significantly from those after gastropexy. The common opinion that dilatation precedes volvulus is rejected. A new hypothesis is proposed, in which volvulus precedes dilatation.