Gastromyxorrhea

GASTROMALACIA, see Stomach. GASTROMYXORRHEA (synonyms: myxorrhea gastrica, gastrosuccorrhea mucosa, hypersecretio mucosa), gastromyxorrhea, is the excessive secretion of mucus by the gastric mucosa while fasting (during a period of complete absence of food stimuli in the stomach), an anomaly of gastric secretion described by Dauber and Kuttner as an independent disease. Gastromyxorrhea can be constant or periodic; in the former case, one can always find mucus (of gastric origin) in the fasting stomach, no less than 25 cubic centimeters, while in the latter, excessive secretion of mucus while fasting occurs only during an attack. Constant gastromyxorrhea proceeds without subjective symptoms or with symptoms caused by a simultaneously existing gastric catarrh or gastrosuccorrhea (or hypersecretion). The mucus obtained from the stomach while fasting is of an alkaline or neutral (less often weakly acidic) reaction and separates in a conical glass into two layers: the upper, constituting the main mass in the form of a whitish turbid liquid, and the lower, consisting of clumps and pieces of mucus; microscopic examination shows the presence of a large number of leukocytes, cylindrical epithelial cells, goblet cells, cell nuclei, and sometimes pigmented cells of the alveolar epithelium. Periodic gastromyxorrhea proceeds in the form of separate attacks of excessive mucus secretion; prodromal symptoms are a feeling of fatigue, headache, and nausea; the attack itself usually begins in the morning with uncontrollable vomiting of large amounts of mucus and lasts from several hours to several days. Constant gastromyxorrhea (gastromyxorrhea continua) most often occurs with chronic gastric catarrh, accompanied by the absence of HCl and enzymes in the gastric juice, and especially often with gastritis desquamativa; sometimes increased mucus secretion runs parallel to increased HCl secretion, and then there is simultaneously gastrosuccorrheangastromyxorrhea. Periodic gastromyxorrhea also occurs as a symptom of other diseases: in diseases of the spinal cord (often as the first symptom of tabes dorsalis incipiens), in chronic pharyngitis and rhinitis due to irritation of the gastric mucosa by a large amount of secretion, or as a result of nervous vasomotor influences. Whether the cause of this secretory anomaly is pathological-anatomical changes, nervous influences, or both together, is difficult to decide in each individual case. The question of the existence of gastromyxorrhea as a pure secretory neurosis must be considered open. Treatment is reduced, mainly, to acting on the underlying disease; symptomatically, the following have a good effect: 1) gastric lavage while fasting with a soda solution or alkaline mineral water; 2) drinking mineral waters containing a sufficient amount of NaCl and CO₃ (Borjomi); 3) during an acute attack, subcutaneous injection of morphine with atropine; internally, Cerium oxalycum with cocaine or validol is given.