EXPERIMENTAL TRANSPLANTATION OF THE PANCREAS INTO THE STOMACH

Abstract

While the extensive investigative work on the pancreas proves that this gland is an essential organ in the human economy, the literature concerning surgical procedures on the pancreas is scanty and loosely scattered through medical journals and textbooks. The information that we gained from a search of the literature particularly impressed us with the fact that the present knowledge of diseases of the pancreas and the practical application of surgical treatment to the cure of these conditions are hardly any further advanced today than they were fifty years ago, when surgical treatment was limited to a few operations performed for the cure of retention cysts by excision or for the formation of an external fistula. Since that time a great deal of experimental work has been done in attempts to clear up the mysteries surrounding the function of the pancreas. On the clinical side, Friederich (1878) summarized the meager knowledge