[Status of the sympathetic-adrenal system in children with suppurative peritonitis].

An increased excretion of catecholamines with the day urine was found in 166 children with diffuse and local peritonitis in acute period. A continuous suppurative process in the abdominal cavity and reoperations inevitably resulted in marked exhaustion of the sympatho-adrenal system and disturbed balance of its sympathetic and adrenal links. It is necessary to make up the catecholamine pool by the introduction of precursors, e.g. L-DOPA which will promote compensatory, regulatory and trophic influences upon processes of regulation and metabolism in the organism.