Technique of massage of the stomach / by Gustaf Norstrom.

  • Norstrom, Gustaf.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Technique of massage of the stomach / by Gustaf Norstrom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the organ1 to make him lie on the right side, the left going be- beyond the vertical plane. I was then astonished at the facility with which I could seize and mass the stomach. In cases of gastric dilation I obtained the sound by means of very small succussions, and, in a word, the organ entraine by its own weight fell, if I may say so, into my hand ready to undergo the different manipulations that I wished to perform. To this way of operating the following objection has been made: The object of massage being to make the aliments cir¬ culate from the cardia to the pylorus, is not the contrary effect obtained through massing from the pylorus to the cardia? To this I answer that the object of massage is not only to make the aliments circulate in the stomach, but also and above all to restore the tone of the muscular fibers of the organ, and, these fibers being circular, the direction of the pressure is a matter of little importance. As to the aliments, we begin by driving them from the cardia to the pylorus by massing the patient in the dorsal decubitus, then we make him lie on the side, and finally we end by a new massage in the dorsal de¬ cubitus. The following is the exact modus faciendi. The patient is placed in the dorsal decubitus with the legs bent and the head somewhat raised. The breathing ought to be free and the meal to have been taken a few hours before. One has indeed wondered whether massage performed during the digestion did not delay this physiological act, but the experiences of Gopadze and especially those of Dr. Beulet,1 of Berne, have on the contrary proved that the acceleration imparted by massage to the peristaltic movements and the increase in the production of the gastric juice through the excitation of the glands stim¬ ulates the gastric function. The duration of the digestion can thus be diminished by more than an hour. The aliments re¬ main then for a shorter time in the stomach, they are better 1 Beulet Correspondenzblatt fiir Schweizer Aertzte, March, 1888.