A Text-Book of Surgery for Students and Practitioners

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ...and with periods of distinct improvement in the general nutrition and anemic condition, between attacks. Atonic gastritis may show an absence of hydrochloric acid, the digestive disturbances, the loss of weight and strength, the anemia, but rarely the cachexia. Moreover, the progress of the disease is much slower. One of the most recent and most valuable aids to the diagnosis of gastric cancer, is the evidence furnished by the.1'-rays. Serial gastric rtintgenography, after the ingestion of a bismuth meal, will often demonstrate stenosis, ulcerations, areas of infiltration, and an interruption of the normal peristaltic waves, which. with other symptoms and signs, render an early diagnosis highly probable. Not infrequently in the presence of early and comparatively unimportant symptoms, the riintgen rays will give positive evidence of an organic lesion, at a time when radical operation, can offer sanguine hope of a cure.r Prognosis.--The disease, unless radically removed at an early period, is invariably fatal, death occurring in from one to two years after the first characteristic symptoms. The interest awakened by the increasing number of cures by early and radical operative measures, which have been reported during the past few years, has led to more careful methods of examination and earlier diagnosis. As a result of this, many cases are now subjected to operation at a more favorable period, and surgeons confidently look forward to better statistics in 'the near future. In late cases life often can be prolonged and suffering relieved by certain palliative surgical measures, as gastrostomy and gastro-enterostomy. Treatment.--As soon as the diagnosis is established or rendered even probable, it should be decided which method...