EXPERIMENTAL TRANSPLANTATION OF INTESTINE AFTER EXTENSIVE EXCISION OF THE SIGMOID

This subject was suggested to me by a case that came under my care about five years ago. The patient was a colored man, a deaf mute, who had been suffering from obstruction of the bowels for several days before admission to the hospital. He was enormously distended and his condition was desperate. Operation was done under cocain and a volvulus of the sigmoid found. The sigmoid was twisted and so distended that it resembled a large cyst. The volvulus was excised and after removing the diseased bowel it was impossible to approximate the lower end of the large intestine to the small portion of the descending colon that was left. An artificial anus was formed. The patient recovered and left the hospital about four weeks after the operation. He was very ignorant and could not properly take care of himself. His condition was pitiful in the extreme.The necessity