EFFECT OF MODERATE DOSES OF SOME OPIUM DERIVATIVES ON GASTRO-INTESTINAL TRACT OF MAN

Abstract

This work was undertaken as the result of the observations of one of us (Pancoast¹) on the gastro-intestinal motility of a patient who had a hypodermic of morphin several hours before the Roentgen studies were made. There was found not only an hour-glass constriction of the stomach, but also a striking retardation of the motility of the small intestine. Control studies on this patient at a later date, and when freed from the influence of morphin, revealed no such abnormalities. The earliest investigations in which the Roentgen rays were utilized in the study of the action of opium and its derivatives on the gastro-intestinal tract were those in which animals, especially dogs and cats, were utilized. These studies frequently revealed, not only a retention of the bismuth meal in the esophagus for a period of one-half hour, but also a retention, even for hours, in the fundus and not