Dilatation may suffice to overcome a stricture in the rectum, the result of cicatricial contraction, or colotomy may be necessary in cases more refractory or situated higher in the bowel. Post10 reported a successful colotomy, with the formation of an artificial anus in the left lumbar region, in such a case.
10 New York Med. Record, 1879, xvi. 24, p. 260.
The food should be fluid, but nutritious, and milk best fulfils both these requisites. Where milk cannot be tolerated it may be substituted by soups, beef-tea, mutton-broths, chicken-soup, etc. But it should be known of these substitutes that they contain little or no nutritious matter on account of the insolubility of the albuminoids, and are really only stimulants. Soft-boiled egg, thin custards, sweetbreads, scraped or chopped raw beef—albumen thus in substance—constitute the best food. But during the intensity of an attack the patient should almost altogether abstain from food, both from lack of inclination for it and from lack of ability to digest it. During convalescence the food should be on the basis of animal diet, though ripe fruits and fresh succulent vegetables should not be altogether withheld.
In all cases of pronounced prostration stimulants are to be freely used, and of all stimulants alcohol is the best, as it has also nutritive and antiseptic properties. Alcohol is thus triply indicated in the treatment of dysentery, but the choice of the form and strength will be a matter of judgment in the individual case.
Where life is imperilled by hemorrhage or anæmia from any cause, a forlorn hope is offered in transfusion, which in the hands of C. Schmidt (1874) has proved successful in two cases.
Abscess of the liver is best treated by aspiration or hepatotomy; rheumatism, by the salicylates; and paralysis, by the constant current of electricity.
Obstinate cases of chronic or continually recurring dysentery are thoroughly cured only by a sea-voyage, a sojourn at the seashore, a mountain-excursion, or a permanent change of climate.