SURGICAL TREATMENT OF BENIGN AND SECONDARILY MALIGNANT TUMORS OF THE ESOPHAGUS

THE OCCURRENCE of benign tumors of the esophagus has been known since an early period of clinical diagnosis of lesions of the esophagus. The growths which were diagnosed at that time were of the pedunculated polypoid type and were recognized because of the periodic appearance of the tumor or its extrusion into the mouth of the patient. The treatment of these growths is probably the earliest of recorded surgical procedures for tumors of the esophagus. Sussius (Susio) is credited by Minski 1 with one of the earliest necropsy descriptions (1559) of an esophageal polyp, which extended from the middle part of the esophagus to the cardia of the stomach, causing obstruction and death. Minski also credited to Dallas and Monroe one of the earliest attempts at surgical removal, which was carried out by them in 1763 on a 64 year old patient who, on vomiting, forced multiple pedunculated tumors into