PEPTIC ULCER OF THE ESOPHAGUS

Abstract

Of the various ulcerative diseases of the esophagus one kind has been termed because of the close similarity of its postmortem aspect to that of peptic ulcer of the stomach. All of the recorded cases are based on a diagnosis made only at autopsy. The development of esophagoscopy to the degree of perfection that permits of examination of the esophagus in any patient in a few minutes, without any anesthetic, general or local, has rendered practical the study and the diagnosis of this disease in the living and has rendered its local treatment quite simple. Therefore, it may be said that a new era has begun in the study of this disease. INCIDENCE Peptic ulcer has been diagnosed in eighty-eight out of more than 4,000 cases of esophageal disease in fortytwo years of my experience. Of these eighty-eight cases, twenty-one were active ulcers and sixty-seven were scars probably due