MODERN PHYSIOLOGIC CONCEPTS
Their Application to the Treatment of Disease of the Liver
- JAMES F. WEIR, M.D.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
Treatment of hepatic disease until recent years was largely symptomatic. Diets low in all constituents were prescribed to spare the diseased liver as much as possible. As ascites was often the first clinical manifestation of chronic hepatic disease, the attack was primarily against this by means of purges, restriction of fluid and salt and, in more recent times, the administration of acid-forming salts and organic mercurial diuretics. Undoubtedly much damage was done by the enthusiastic therapeutist. Little attention was given to methods of supporting the liver, and little was known of the factors leading to ascites. In the twenties attention began to be directed to the condition of the liver based on new knowledge of its physiology and the experimental production of hepatic disease. Since then progressive changes in therapeutic practice have occurred. Results remain difficult to evaluate, but a scientific clinical approach has been developed.
In an attempt at
Footnotes
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Read in a symposium on "Diseases of the Liver" before the joint meeting of the Section on Gastro-Enterology and Proctology and the Section on Pathology and Physiology at the Ninety-Fifth Annual Session of the American Medical Association, San Francisco, July 5, 1946.
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This paper and the succeeding papers by Dr. Osgood, Drs. Giansiracusa and Althausen, Dr. Capps, Captain Sborov and Dr. Barker, and Dr. Wilbur are part of a symposium of eleven papers on "Diseases of the Liver." The other six papers in the symposium will be published in The Journal next week.
