PHYSIOLOGIC COLECTOMY IN CHRONIC TOXEMIAS OF INTESTINAL ORIGIN

Abstract

The cumulative experience of both physicians and surgeons engaged in a large way with the treatment of gastro-intestinal conditions, and of experimental scientists in dealing with these problems, tends to confirm what may be expressed as at least tentative conclusions as follows: The origin of certain toxins and of the now recognized anaphylatoxin 1 demonstrated to be present in certain toxemias, both convulsive and nonconvulsive in type, is due to certain conditions of stasis in the gastro-intestinal tract. Stasis in the gastro-intestinal tract implies (a) fecal retardation in either the small intestine or the colon or both; (b) venous retardation in either the mesocolic circulation or the mesenteric circulation or both, and (c) retardation in the lymphatic circulation of both the mesocolon and the mesentery. These three forms of stasis are associated with and obviously dependent on some form of gastro-intestinal displacement or other distortion, and are, therefore, primarily mechanical in