DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA OF THE RETICULUM.
Anatomical reasons. Gullet, weight of stomach, riding, dystokia. Symptoms. Tendency to chronicity. Treatment.
In ruminants this is the most common phrenic hernia of a hollow abdominal viscus. On the right side the gastric and intestinal organs are separated from the diaphragm by the flat mass of the liver. A laceration in this region must therefore be extensive to allow of the protrusion of any abdominal organ into the chest. The left half of the diaphragm, however, comes in direct contact with the reticulum and any opening large enough to admit of this viscus is likely to entail hernia of the second stomach. The lesion is further favored by the fact that the gullet passes through this part of the diaphragm and is connected with the stomachs in the furrow between the first and second stomachs. In case, therefore, that the gullet is violently dragged upon by the weight of the contents of the overloaded or tympanitic paunch, or when the animal rises on its hind limbs, in riding its fellow, the foramen sinistrum is liable to be enlarged by laceration, and the second stomach most naturally protrudes through the opening. The strain thrown on the diaphragm in violent abdominal contraction, as in difficult parturition, is mainly expended on this left half, and the laceration takes place around the œsophagus, or as in cases reported by Schurinck and Siedamgrotzky through the aponeurotic portion. The protrusion may be composed of the second stomach alone, or together with portion of the paunch as observed by Schmidt in a goat, or of the third and fourth stomachs as in a case in a bull reported by Baraillé. The edges of the orifice may show, in recent cases, the fringed or irregular jagged outline with blood clots and thickening, or in chronic cases the pale, fibrous, smooth, even outline already described under diaphragmatic hernia.
The symptoms are like those of other forms of phrenic hernia, in ratio with its extent. The tendency to survival, and chronicity is greater than in the monogastric animals, 1st because the entrance of the smaller viscera is barred by the great gastric masses applied against the wound, and 2nd by the quiet uneventful life of the ox and the absence of active work and violent excitement.
Treatment will not differ from that of other forms of phrenic hernia.