Gastric Lesions Following Hypothalamic Stimulation

Since the first observations made during the last century,²⁸considerable clinical and experimental evidence has accumulated to support the existence of a relationship between certain intracranial lesions and acute gastrointestional ulcerations and hemorrhages. This evidence was reviewed by Cushing in 1931 in his Balfour Lecture.⁵He presented a series of patients with intracranial tumors who postoperatively had either gastrointestinal bleeding or perforation. This report stimulated a number of other clinical studies on patients with various pathological conditions of the brain and concomitant gastrointestinal lesions.¹¹,²⁴,³²,³⁷ The neural mechanisms involved in acute gastrointestinal changes have been the subject of investigations since Schiff²⁹showed in experimental animals that cerebral lesions were associated with gastric ulceration and perforation. This observation was later confirmed by other investigators.¹⁴,¹⁷,³⁶However, many of these lesions were not produced by the stereotaxic method, but by direct surgical procedures which caused damage to other