Surgery of the Esophagus

Abstract

IT IS noteworthy that in the year 1950, a Medical Progress report should be concerned solely with the surgery of the esophagus — noteworthy because only fifteen years ago, Churchill¹ recalled that the esophagus had been termed one of "the last frontiers of surgery" in a discussion of the unsuccessful operations that had been performed on this organ up to that time. The surgery of that era was concerned with esophagoscopy and the removal of foreign bodies from the esophagus, bougienage for strictures and cardiospasm, the two-stage removal of diverticula of the cervical segment and some disheartening attempts to duplicate . . .