When it is desired to give fluid, calories, or electrolytes, and neither the oral nor the intravenous route is available, it is possible to administer the material to patients by hypodermoclysis. With the use of a purified hyaluronidase preparation, fluids can be infused as rapidly by hypodermoclysis as by the intravenous route. In view of frequent personnel shortages and the relative ease of starting and maintaining the administration of fluids by clysis, this route would appear to have some advantages. Periodic reports in the literature have advocated the administration of a 5 or 10% carbohydrate or amino acid solution by hypodermoclysis. However, the possibility that administration of an electrolyte-free isotonic solution or any hypertonic solution by hypodermoclysis may induce hypotension, oliguria, and possibly peripheral vascular collapse appears to have been insufficiently emphasized.
Recently, Abbott and associates1 considered the problem of the possible dangers involved in the administration of an