A surgical study : gastrotomy and gastrostomy / by J.H. Pooley.

  • Pooley, J. H. (James Henry), 1839-1897.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A surgical study : gastrotomy and gastrostomy / by J.H. Pooley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    pose of establishing a permanent fistula for the introduction of food in case of complete closure of the resophagus—an operation first performed by Sedillot, of Strasbourg, in 1849, who gave it the name of gastro stomie, or stomach mouth, a term which, modified into gastrostomy, we propose to retain as worthy to become a recognized surgical technicality. That the idea of introducing food directly into the stomach through an artificial opening in those terrible cases of death from starvation, where there is complete obstruction of the resophagus, should have suggested itself to surgeons, can not be wondered at; it was only what we might have expected from their humanity and enter])rise. Since the first trial by Sedillot the operation has been repeatedly performed, but hitherto without success. Is this want of success inherent in the operation and unavoidable, and should it, therefore, be abandoned? Or has it depended upon avoidable circum- stances in the cases operated upon, and does it, therefore, de- mand further trial under more favorable circumstances? These questions we shall seek to answer by a study of this ojjeration, conducted in the same way as in gastrotomy for the removal of foreign bo<lies. As in the first section we deemed it proper to show, as a preliminary, that wounds of the stomach are not necessarily fatal, so here we will first settle the fact that the continu- ance of human life is compatible with the existence of a gas- tric fistula, disregarding for the present the well-known fact of the tolerance of fi.^tula; of this kind in the lower animals, to make use of it further on. And here, fortunately, our material is prepared for us— ready to our hand. In an excellent and very interesting paper by Dr. Charles Murchison, in vol. xli. of the Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, there is a table of twenty-five cases of gastric fistula, in most of which life was prolonged for a considerable period, in some for many years; in one.