Gravitational and shear-associated pressure gradients in the abdomen

The abdomen has been variously characterized as a hydrostatic system, in which pressures exhibit a gravitational gradient and pressure fluctuations are spatially uniform, and as a compartment, in which pressure gradients are not simply gravitational and pressure fluctuations differ markedly from place to place. To characterize the pressures acting on the ventral abdominal wall, we used saline-filled catheters and air-filled balloons in anesthetized dogs in various body positions during spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation. Pressures were measured in the stomach and at multiple sites next to the abdominal wall. Under most circumstances, measurements next to the abdominal wall exhibited a hydrostatic gravitational gradient of approximately 0.89 cmH2O/cm height and pressure fluctuations were spatially homogeneous. Deviations from this hydrostatic behavior were seen when abdominal pressures were compared with gastric pressures, when measurements were made with a balloon catheter, and when the lower abdomen was constricted with a binder. Analysis of these and previously published data suggests that the abdomen does, at times, behave like a hydraulic system but can deviate from simple hydrostatic behavior to the extent that shape-stable abdominal viscera are deformed.