A case of simple stenosis of the oesophagus, followed by epithelioma / by C. Hilton Fagge.

  • Fagge, Charles Hilton, 1838-1883.
Date:
[1892]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of simple stenosis of the oesophagus, followed by epithelioma / by C. Hilton Fagge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    death. Upon these occasions she experienced violent palpita- tions of the heart. Solids gave her less uneasiness than fluids, for which reason she took very sparingly of the latter. She fancied she nourished within her a voracious animal, and attributed all her uneasiness to the fury with which this half- starved monster fell upon each morsel in its passage to the stomach. She died at the age of sixty-two. At the post- mortem examination the oesophagus and stomach are stated to have been perfectly healthy. The only condition found in the dead body to which the dysphagia could be referred was an abnormal course of the right subclavian artery, passing from left to right between the oesophagus and the trachea. The name Dysphagia lusoria was given by Bayford to this affection from the lusus natures which causes it. His case has been quoted by many later writers, and among others by Mr. Quain.1 But so far as I can learn, no further observations have since been made, confirmatory of the view that dysphagia may be produced by this peculiarity in the course of the right subclavian artery. It would appear, however, that a much more common abnormality is that in which the artery, after arising from the aorta, runs behind the oesophagus. Its passage between the trachea and the oesophagus seems to be of extremely rare occur- rence. The recent literature of dysphagia lusoria is chiefly German; and most writers are, I think, now agreed that an abnormal course of the right subclavian artery is not likely to interfere with the functions of the oesophagus unless the blood- vessel be dilated or aneurismal. However this may be, it is not probable that such a case as that which forms the subject of this paper could be mistaken for one of dysphagia lusoria, as the obstruction would be referred by the patient to a different seat; and the same may perhaps be said of those cases of oesophageal pouches in which dysphagia seems sometimes to exist for years. Such pouches appear usually to be situated either opposite the bifurcation of the trachea, or in the root of the neck. In the latter case a distinct tumour has sometimes been felt behind the larynx, when the sac has become filled with food during a meal. 1 ' The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body,' 1844, p. 154.