The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-11
HARDWARE IN STOMACH
AN OPERATION THAT HAS ATTRACT.
ED ATTENTION AMONG DOCTORS.
The "Human Ostrich and His Burden
Pneumonia Develops from
the Use of x-Ray.

Physicians over the country are at pres
ent strongly interested in surgical opera
| tions on the stomach, one in particular
known as gastrotomy, for the removal of
foreign bodies in the stomach, one or two
| operations of this kind having been given
national attention in the last few years.
| One of the most remarkable of these cases
was reported by A. Fl. Meisenbach, pro-
lessor of surgery in the Marion Sims Col
lege of Medicine, at st. Louis. 1t is de-
scribed in a recent number of the Journal
| of the American Medical Association.
The case in which DR.. Meisenbach per-
| formed this remarkable operation came I'M
der his observation March 80, 1897. The
| patient termed himself the Human Os-
trich," and had followed the profession of
swallowing glass, metal, ETC., for a period
| of nine years. He was known as "Signor
/ Ranana," and was twenty-five years of age.
He appeared here several years ago. The
| patient had received fair education and
| had attended school and college. While
still in school, in March, 1883, he witnessed
an exhibition by a professional glass eater.
He paid the "signor" $40 to teach him the
| art of glass eating. After experimenting
for a few days he found he could perform
| the same feats. At first he gave private
exhibitions He took great interest in swal-
undertook practical sword swallowing ALSO
In 1894 he joined speciality company. Since
| 1894 he had been continually giving private
and public exhibition at least once or twice
| a week. In the early part of March, 1897 |
! he started out on a trip and on account
| of a scarcity Of funds was obliged to give
as many as six to twelve exhibitions daily
in saloons or elsewhere, but he did not
swallow much at a time, only bite or two
| of glass, four or five nails, screws cart
ridges or a few fence staples. He always
carried a supply of the objects so as to be
able to give an exhibition of swallowing
| at any time. In his repertoire were pearl
| top lamp chimneys, two, four, six and
eight-penny wire fence nails, barbed-wire
| eight caliber cartridges He never swal-
lowed tacks. The patient stated to the St.
| had any trouble. He never was sick. On
March 10 he said he gave number Of ex-
in the stomach" and the first pains were
noticed On March Is the last SiS object was
The patient came to st. Louis to seek re-
! lief feeling that he was beginning to get
into serious condition.
LOCATED BY THE x RAY.
'The physical examination alone" con-
&inues the physician, "was sufficient to es-
| tablish the diagnosis of foreign bodies in
the stomach The patient was willing to
|
| admitted at once March 800 to the Re-
bel1ah Hospital for observation and prepara-
ton for the operation. He was placed on
liquid diet. The question whether the for
| eign bodies were located in the stomach
or elsewhere was a Very important one
from an operative and prognostic stand
point. It was decided, however, to demon
| by means of the x rays. On Friday even
ing, April 2, the experiments with the, x
a standing position. with his back to the
| tube. The position of the mass was the
same as revealed in the physical examina-
exposures were made. the last on Monday
evening, April 6, the evening before the
operation Three exposures were made,
ranging from thirty-seven to forty minutes
each. The total time during which the
patient was exposed to the x rays at the
various sittngs was nearly five hours"
Continuing, Dr.. Meisenbach says: april
at ?. m, at the Rebekah Hospital in
bers of the Tr1-State Medical Association
and assisted by Drs. Born, Dorsey and
| hour previous to the operation the stomach
| was washed out with a Pasteurine solution.
The anesthetic was chloroform;
Previous to opening, the stomach, sterilized
the wound effectually shutting off the alb
| dominal cavity. The part Of the stomach
that was extra abdominal was kept lifted
| by the assistant and was also protected
by sterilized gauze. The opening into the
stomach into which / could look and see
the mass was two inches in length. I in
troduced a pair Of Bergmann calculus for
on top in the pile of hardware. continued
this operation with the forceps until 1 felt
snat ITS r pqptf f use might aD the d sharp
vided myself with various shaped spoons
thinking that perhaps they might be of
! value to scoop out the articles within the
stomach. Seeing the sharp nature of the
objects, however, concluded not to use the
spoons but to enlarge the stomach incision
| Introduce wound
enlarged to four and one-half inches so
that my hand could pass freely into the
| cavity OF the stomach With my left hand
| scooped out the remaining articles. l
worked carefully so as not to injure the
stomach walls and also not to cut my
fingers on the sharp points Of nails, staples.
| etc, and on the broken pieces of glass The
objects We're clean (kept so by the action
of the gastric iuicesl The iron ones were
blue and smooth; those of brass and copper
Cca9rtndg9ss land and chaino Of their natural
mucus between them, the glass especially
| being surrounded by this mucus. During
the. operation of removing objects there was
| ing place, so that 1t was necessary every
now and then to mop this out by means of
According to DR.: Mesenbach's paper, the
time of this operation was one hour. The
list of articles removed from the stomach
shows: Twenty-Five staples for barbed
| fence wire; fifteen one and one-half-inch
| screws; six two-anch horseshoe nails; six
teen, two-inch wire nails; thirty one and
one-half-inch wire nails; sixteen thirty-two
caliber cartridges; five thirty-eight caliber
cartridges; two pocket-knife blades (brok-
| en); two inches of brass wash-stand
chain and two small staples: total 119
pieces. The doctor says that from the time
of admission to the hospital, March 30, to
| the time of the operation, April Z, the rec
| ords show that the patient complained daily
of acute gripping pains Sometimes these
pains would recur every fifteen minutes.
PNEUMONIA FROM X-RAYS.
The doctor further says: 1T will be
noted that the patient promptly recovered
from the shock of the operation. In fact
there was practically no shock at all. On
April 10, it is noted that the patient
coughed and an examination of the lungs
| indicated congestion. The patient had no
chill nor did he have much pain.
! The interesting feature about this question
is what caused the pneumonia. Sorel. a
French surgeon, recently made the state
ment that pneumonia can be- produced by
! the X-ray."
! DR.. Meisenbaeh is disposed to favor the
! X-ray theory as the cause OF the pneumonia
! in this case. He says that an argument in
favor OF the assumption that X-rayS caused
| the trouble is the fact that the pneumonia
occurred on the right side and the X-rays
| We're directed principally over this side. II
/ believe" observes the DOCTOR that the
| complications in this case were due to the