Narrowing of the Esophagus. 231 



or if these methods are unpromising from the start on account 

 of the nature of obstruction, the division of the foreign body 

 with the aid of a tenotome may be attempted in the following 

 manner: The foreign body is pushed to the left side, an in- 

 cision is made into it with a fine-pointed tenotome, next a dull- 

 pointed tenotome is introduced and the division of the body is 

 attempted (Imminger). In some cases, however, esophagotomy 

 cannot be avoided. Porcher and Morey removed a foreign body 

 (teaspoon) from the caudal extremity of the esophagus of a dog 

 by a laparo-gastrotomy. 



Literature. Chapellier, Bull, 1904, 483.— Droiiiu, Bull., 1904, 854.— Eber, 

 S. B., 1896, 30.— Fabretti, Vet. Jhb., 1896, 161.— Imminger, W. f. Tk., 1906, 221.— 

 Johne, S. B., 1879, 4.5. — Kahu, Eugelmanns Arch. f. Physiol., 1906, 355. — Maury, 

 Rev. vet., 1899, 159.— Meltzer, Ztbl. f. Physiol, 1906, 993.— Porcher & Morey 

 Bull, 1898, 707.— Pr. Mil Vb., 1903, 114.— Rolfes, Vet., 1894, 128.— Schafer! 

 A. f. Tk., 1896, XII, 280.— SufEran, Eev. vet., 1906, 652.— Zietschmann, S. B 

 1903, 262. 



5. Narrowing of the Esophagus. Stenosis oesophagi. 



{Yerengeniug des Schlundes [German].) 



Etiology. Stenosis of a shorter or longer section of the 

 esophagus may be brought about by cicatricial contraction of 

 the mucosa (strictura oesophagi), caused by deeply penetrating 

 inflammations or injuries, crushing by pointed or rough foreign 

 bodies, destruction of tissues by corroding poisons. Thickening 

 of the mucosa or of the muscularis of the esophagus produces 

 a similar effect, likewise an abscess or a neoplasm or other 

 swellings, such as carcinoma, actinomycosis, papilloma, nodules 

 due to spiroptera sanguinolenta. In the case of a cow seen by 

 Joest, a pediculated, nodular, spindle-celled sarcoma of the 

 lower end of the esophagus always receded like a ball valve 

 during deglutition, to be again pressed into the esophagus upon 

 the filling of the rumen. In the case of a horse reported by 

 Schimmel a single gastrus larva, which had penetrated into 

 the esophageal wall, produced stenosis. 



Stenosis of the efsophagus in the liorse may l)e due to continuous 

 and often repeated spasm of the cardia. The occurrence of muscular 

 hypertrophy with dilation of the esophagus, but in the absence of any 

 obstruction (Kitt, Frohner and others) to which one could refer the 

 hypertrophy and the subsequent dilatation of the esophagns, permit the 

 conclusion that stenosis may he due to the causes given above. This is 

 also shown by an observation of Woodruff who failed to find any- 

 thing abnormal in the esophagus at the post-mortem examination of a 

 horse which, during life, had presented the sj^nptoms of esophageal 

 stenosis and which, after the introduction of the finger into the cardia, 

 had always shown strong antiperistaltic movements. Petit and Ger- 

 main are, however, inclined to look upon muscular hypertrophy at the 

 caudal end of the esophagus as depending upon chronic dilatation of the 

 stomach, due to abnormal gas formation. 



