| OCR Text |
Show Stomach Ailments Easily Diagnosed Before the discovery of the X-ray, It was difficult for the physician to tell whether or not the symptoms were due to ulcer, cancer, or gastritis gas-tritis inflammation of the lining of the stomach. By means of test meals, the presence of large or small amounts or even absence of hydrochloric acid in the stomach contents, he was often able to tell just which condition was present. If he was in doubt, often the abdomen was opened and stomach lining examined. ex-amined. This is called an "exploratory" "explora-tory" operation as it is an attempt to explore or find what is wrong. However, when the X-ray was discovered dis-covered and it was possible to see whether the lining of the stomach was smooth or had slight depressions or other deformities, the presence Df ulcer or of cancer could be told In most cases. When the physician and surgeon were in doubt, an exploratory ex-ploratory operation was made but this was not necessary very often. However, while the use of the X-ray in locating ulcer and cancer was a great step forward it was found that in a few cases, when the X-ray pointed to cancer and the exploratory operation was performed, per-formed, no cancer was found. And In some cases also where X-ray apparently ap-parently showed no cancer present, the patient really had cancer and this was sometimes discovered too late to save his life. Fortunately, the new instrument, the gastroscope, which enables the physician to "see" the lining of the stomach, is now enabling physicians to advise operation when needed and there is no fatal delay. By using X-rays and the gastroscope, gastro-scope, stomach patients now have double protection against ulcer and cancer. |
