Chronic ulcerations in the dog's stomach produced by x-ray

Abstract

Progress in the study of gastric ulcer has been decidedly delayed by the fact that it has been impossible to produce, experimentally, chronic ulcerative lesions in the stomach of the lower animals, notably in the dog. Innumerable attempts have been made in the past twenty or more years, and, with one possible exception, they have all been failures. In certain instances, Dragstedt was able to produce a chronic ulcer by injecting 4 per cent silver nitrate solution beneath the mucosa, and then stitching in and out through this area, using non-absorbable material. In about 60 per cent of cases, a chronic lesion was produced, but the procedure was by no means dependable, and added the element of a foreign body imbedded in the tissues. In October, 1923, I began an experimental study of gastric ulcer. Accepting the suggestion given me by Dragstedt, I began a series of experiments to determine whether the exposure of the mucous membrane of the dog's stomach to X-ray would produce a destructive lesion that would be slow in healing, often resisting for months all forms of treatment, if such a lesion could be produced in the wall of the dog's stomach, it might be considered a pathological and clinical counterpart of chronic ulcer in the human. This may be questioned, at least until microscopic evidence will indicate whether these experimentally produced ulcers are histologically similar to human chronic ulcers. After a number of failures due to insufficient exposure, it was finally discovered that an ulceration which runs a definite chronic course, can be produced in the dog's stomach by the X-ray.