Clinical series demonstrates rapid pain relief and crater healing in peptic ulcer patients treated with hypothermia, suggesting an alternative to elective surgery.
GASTRIC FREEZING is under evaluation as a definitive treatment of various manifestations of the peptic ulcer diathesis, including duodenal, gastric, and stomal ulcer, and stenosing esophagitis. The vast majority of the 365 patients treated by us to date have been candidates for elective surgery for duodenal ulcer (Table 1). Following a freeze of 45, 50, or 60 minutes, with gastric inflow temperatures of about —17 C (0.8 F), dramatic and immediate relief of ulcer pain and rapid healing of ulcer craters has been observed quite regularly. The distinction between gastric cooling and gastric freezing needs re-emphasis. Gastric cooling, involving inflow temperatures of 5 to 10 C (41-50 F), has been employed in the emergency treatment of massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage since its development in 1958. 1,2 Its efficacy has been confirmed in a number of independent observations and it appears to have found favorable acceptance by the medical profession. Gastric
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Bernstein et al. (1964) studied this question.
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