The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-04


formed the unprecedented operation of
taking out the stomach OF a Swiss
peasant woman, howshe joined the end
of the esopha gus with the beginning of
the intestine and how this woman, the
first in history to live without stom-
aoh, is not only in fairly good health
today, but can actually work about
the hospital wards and suffers little, if
any, inconvenience. On some hands
this operation is regarded as the be-
ginning of q new era in surgery, and it
is said that the medical theories of the
past and present regarding the neces-
sity of the stomach as a part or the
digestive system will have to be re-
vised- Even those who do not admit
this. and prefer to wait for the light
of further experiments, call Il one Of
the most brilliant pieces of surgery that
this end of the century has brought
forth, and have nothing but praise for
the rare technical skin and daring of
the young German surgeon.
Only the bare facts have been told,
however, outside of the medical papers,
the Medical Record of this city, whose
Zurich correspondent, DR.. z. c. Wendt
of New York, sent on all the details,
and the London Lancet. Even these
do not give all the information of in
terest that this remarkable operation
brings to the fore. DR.. Schlatters work
is one more link In the science of stom-
ach surgery. which in the last 20 years
has developed greatly. DR.. Schlatter, it
is true, has gone much further than any
one else has dared, and he mas proved
this strange thing, that the stomach
is a much overrated organ of the body;
that it is not absolutely essential to
the process of digestion. and that hu-
man being can live without it. Yet this
operation, though the greatest ever
known in stomach surgery, is but one
of a chain of operations, and is not
modern miracle of science.
In medical archives there are many
data concerning this branch of surgery.
Large portions of the stomach have
often been removed. On occasions as
much as seven-eighthS of stomach
has been cut away by a surgeons knife
and the patient has survived the oper-
alton, only to Gle in a few weeks or
months. however, in nearly every case,
as the records show. Surgical work
has gone even further than this, how
ever AS long ago as 1873 Czerny, the
Austrian, and his pupils, Serbia and
Kaiser, began experimenting with dogs
TO this end, and they and the European
scientists, Pachon, Carvallo, Monasl
and Filippi, took out in many instances
the stomachs of these animals. proving
dog of Czerny, in fact, lived FIVE years
after his stomach had been removed,
and finally, while in good health, was
destroyed for anatomical purposes. In
this case it was found, after the dog s
death, that not quite all OF the stomach
had been excised, a portion of the car
daic, or esophagal, end remaining, and
that this had distended and exercised
gastric functions on a small scale.
The other dogs spoken of, however,
were all left completely without Stom-
aehs, and though losing weight stead
lily IL some cases, continued to exist
with comfort. The German surgeon,
Monari, published an interesting paper
on this subject year ago, in which he
showed that animals could live stom-
achless, and as dogs and human beings
have much the same internal structure.
* seemed as If the same would be pos
sible in the case of a man or woman.
Biliroth, the Austrian, started the
work with reference to human Delngs
in 1881, and his operations quickly be-
came world-famed. The scho OILS of Ger
man and Austrian surgical science
speedily followed in his wake, CZerny,
Woefier, Loretta, Mikulicz and Esmarch
being the men that accomplished ana
dared the most. 1t was found possible
to remove more and more of the stom-
ach without destroying its gastric func-
tions, and IN several instances so little
of the organ was left that il could have
been of little practical use in digestion:
Nevertheless, the patients lived, ana
the disease for which they were treated
cancer and malignant tulnOrS--seehl-
ed TO be arrested in their development
In America. and more particularly in
New York, abdominal surgery has al
vaaced no less than it has ON the con-
tinent. though, with far fewer huspit- :
opportunities for surgeons TO do nrisi- |
nal experimenting are nO- so numerous.
Yet American surgeons are no iSsS
skillful with their instruments, and Just |
as remarkable operations are. continu- I
ally performed here as are abroad iAe !
men of New York who are world-Ialned /
for this sort of work are DIR. Robert ;. /
Weir, DIR. William I. Bull, DR.. Robert /
Able. DR.. Gerster and DIR. George r
Shrady. With them, and even rev OF |
the lesser surgical lights, the operation |
of excising a large part OF The stomach |
is 10 new thing, and while not ire !
ouently done because Of it's danger, is (
more than possible.
A stomach is removed, in part or as 1
whole, as in the Schlatter case, because /
of some form of malignant tumor or .
obstruction to the passage of the ali
mentary canal which includes throat, /
stomach and intestines. A
tumor generally grows in the pyloric
or intestinal end of the stomach, and a +
structure is in most instances located
there In the case of Anna Lands, the
whose stomach DR.. Schlatter
the entire stomach was af-
fected. and complete excelsior or moth
ing was necessary. The operation of
portion of the stomach and
fitting the intestine into what remains,
so that the passage Of the food in the
process of digestion may be possible,
IS known as gastrotomy, the operation
Of making a new mouth into the stom-
ach.
This is done in very curious and
way. That portion of the
stomach that is diseased is cut out of
as it We're; taken COM
pletely away; though in some cases cut
)ut of the circuit of digestion" it is
allowed to remain. Where the cut is
made the stomach is sewed up. E.,
there is a suture-and then,
4 slit being cut in both the stomach
md intestines, the two are connected
md sewed together. This leaves a spec
al section of the intestine in the di-
FESTIVE circuit, but now only a branch
'or the bile, one of the most important
If the intestinal digestive juices. to
low down to meet the as yet partially
absorbed food. The bile comes from
he liver, which lies just over the py-
ORIG end of the stomach.
There are half a dozen different