Gastroxyxis

GASTROXYNSIS, gastroxyxis (from Greek gaster- stomach and oxys- sharp), a disease of the stomach described in 1884 by Rossbach as a secretory neurosis of the stomach and characterized by periodically occurring attacks of sharp pains in the stomach region with copious vomiting of acidic contents; simultaneously, severe headache often appears in the patient. The attack lasts 1-3 days. At present, the majority of authors are inclined to consider G. not as an isolated monosymptomatic secretory neurosis of the stomach, but most often either as an expression of a general disease of the nervous system of functional origin due to overfatigue or intoxication (especially nicotine), or as an early symptom of an organic disease of the spinal cord. Such attacks are not always easily distinguished from non-manifest attacks of the stomach in tabetics. In individual cases, the matter concerns attacks of migraine or its equivalents, often of allergic origin. In addition to treating the basic disease, it is necessary to categorically forbid smoking, to administer atropine during an attack, and with severe pains simultaneously with morphine (subcutaneously or in the form of suppositories). After the attack ends, a thorough examination of the patient is necessary, especially in the direction of beginning tabes dorsalis or neurosyphilis (see also Gastric Neuroses).