Word: vagus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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After a briefly encouraging recovery, Kasperak again began to bleed internally, this time from "stress ulceration." In yet another operation, Dr. Harry Oberhelman Jr. closed the bleeding sites in the duodenum and cut the vagus nerve to reduce the stomach's output of digestive acids. But these measures, plus massive transfusions, failed to halt the bleeding, and Kasperak was soon back in surgery. In another 21-hour operation, the surgeons tried to stanch the bleeding from an ulcer high in his stomach, and removed his spleen in the hope of improving the clotting quality of his blood...
...reflex arc of mechanism usually involved in hiccups is not entirely understood. The phrenic and vagus nerves are known to be part of it; Dr. Salem thought that it might often include irritation of the trachea, or windpipe. Using a catheter introduced through the nose, he and his colleagues tried spraying the back of the throat with a local anesthetic. They soon noticed, however, that the mere introduction of the catheter stopped the hiccups without drugs...
Problem of Choice. Not until 1943 was a more elegant and rational attack on ulcers adopted. Since the stomach-wall cells are activated by the vagus nerves (which explains why stress or emotional upsets can trigger the ulcer process), Chicago's Dr. Lester R. Dragstedt figured that cutting the vagus nerves would cut down the acid output. His operation, "vagotomy," is not as simple as it sounds: surgeons often have difficulty finding and cutting all the nerve fibers in the bunch. And by itself, vagotomy is not consistently effective. So vagotomy has been combined with hemigastrectomy (second diagram...
...1900s. says he, made many "digestive cripples." may have caused more ulcers than were ever cured, and killed too many patients. The first great advance in ulcer treatment, says Dr. Moore, came in 1943, when Chicago's Dr. Lester R. Dragstedt reported that cutting the vagus nerves (vagotomy) would keep the stomach from producing the excess acid that eats a hole in the wall of the duodenum. Dr. Moore's prescription for a duodenal ulcer severe enough to require surgery: Cut both vagus nerves, but cut out no part of the stomach -only enlarge its outlet...