Surgery of the ileocecal valve : a method of repairing an incompetent ileocecal valve and a method of constructing an artificial ileocecal valve / by J.H. Kellogg.

  • Kellogg, John Harvey, 1852-1943.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Surgery of the ileocecal valve : a method of repairing an incompetent ileocecal valve and a method of constructing an artificial ileocecal valve / by J.H. Kellogg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    possessing like the pylorus a special nervous mechanism distinct from other parts of the ali- mentary canal. Sir William Macewen recorded the results of observations made upon a case in which as the result of the destruction of a portion of the anterior wall of the cecum it was possible to watch the action of the ileocecal valve and a re- ciprocal activity of the appendix. Case, Cannon, and others, who have made a systematic study of the alimentary canal by the aid of the X-ray and the bismuth meal, have demonstrated that the ileocecal valve not onty pre- vents reflux of material from the colon into the small intestine but also regulates the movement of material from the small intestine into the colon in a manner quite analogous to the action of the pylorus in passing digesting food from the stomach into the small intestine. That these functions of the ileocecal valve must be highly important to the welfare of the body is a necessary inference from the fact that the structure is present in practically all vertebrate animals above the level of amphioxus. The py- lorus and the ileocecal valve divide the alimentary canal into three parts, the functions of which differ in such a way as to require their isolation. These are known to anatomists as the fore-gut, reaching from the mouth to the pylorus; the mid-gut, the small intestine, extending from the pylorus to the ileocecal valve; and the end-gut, the large intes- tine. When, as the result of disease, reflux from the small intestine into the stomach occurs, the result is nausea, vomiting and serious interference with the functions of the stomach. The possible injury from reflux of material from the colon into the small intestine seems to have been quite generally overlooked. In another paper the writer has summarized the results of observa- tions in some sixty cases, in which the ileocecal valve was incompetent, which seem to show a clear