Word: vagus
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Vagotomy, the most popular of all, is the vagus nerve operation for ulcers, developed by Chicago's Dr. Lester R. Dragstedt (TIME, Aug. 26). Some 2,000 vagotomies have already been performed in the U.S.; Dr. Dragstedt is credited with 300. Properly done, the operation seems to be generally successful in stopping certain ulcers of the small intestine (Dr. Dragstedt does not recommend it for stomach ulcers...
...operation takes an expert. Unless all the nerve fibers are cut, it does not work. And surgeons have begun to argue fiercely about whether it is better to cut the nerves above or below the diaphragm. Another complication: cutting the vagus reduces the stomach's ability to eliminate food, and further operations may be necessary to remedy that defect...
...Boles of the Philadelphia General Hospital. Said he: "While it is too soon to form conclusions about this operation, it is not too soon to . . . protest against . . . a mass experiment on human beings that is fraught with potentially serious and permanent disabilities." Dr. Boles's warning: the vagus operation, which partially paralyzes the stomach, may produce diarrhea and vomiting, make it hard to get rid of food in the stomach...
Nerve cutting is a drastic operation, and doctors know they cannot predict all its effects. Like the vagus nerve operation for ulcers, and pre-frontal lobotomy for insanity (TIME, Dec. 23), cutting the phrenic nerves impairs some internal functions, but doctors have observed no serious effects. Their conclusion: nerve cutting is justified as a last resort...
...After a vagus operation, ulcers heal rapidly, the stomach quiets down and the patient leaves the hospital within twelve days. At Massachusetts General Hospital, Surgeon Francis D. Moore reported that vagotomy is especially effective for young or middle-aged men with a long history of peptic ulcers. Nonetheless, Drs. Dragstedt, Moore, et al., advise the operation only after diet and other treatments have failed. For nervous stomachs and the "tensions and strains of modern life," says Dr. Dragstedt, preventive psychoanalysis may be better than nerve-cutting...