Abstract
The relation of gastro-intestinal ulceration to lesions of the central nervous system has been reviewed by Cushing 1 and Light. 2
In our series of 50 cats and 40 dogs having experimental lesions in the upper brain-stem, acute gastro-intestinal changes have occurred in a relatively small number. The other animals have exhibited normal guts or slight changes that are difficult to evaluate. Lesions have varied considerably in extent and location. Apart from 3 chronic mid-brain cats in which erosions were found in the stomach, the changes have followed lesions accompanied by hemorrhage into the ventricles or transverse lesions at the level of the chiasm unassociated with intraventricular hemorrhage. This report is confined to a description of maximum reactions noted.
Hyperemia and Hemorrhage. Marked hyperemia of the stomach has been encountered in 12 dogs at death—7 to 24 hours after operation—confined in most instances to the body (Fig. 1). Associated with the hyperemia were multiple hemorrhagic spots in the mucosa, marked by attached clots. The hemorrhages occurred most frequently on the crests of the mucosal folds. Blood in the lumen varied from a slight staining of the mucus to large free clots.
Associated with this reaction in the stomach was a remarkable generalized hyperemia of the mucosa of the duodenum. The hyperemia was progressively less marked going distally, until at the upper end of the jejunum it again became more pronounced, fading as the distal ileum was approached. The intestinal content varied from bloody mucus to blood only. (From the small bowel of Dog 27, 50 cc. of practically pure blood was collected at autopsy; blood was the chief constituent of antimortem feces.) In the large bowel hyperemia was confined to crests of longitudinal folds and in cases amounted to frank hemorrhage.
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