Although not as dramatic as other surgical areas, the advances in gastrointestinal surgery play an important role in the nation's improving health picture, Dr. Isidore Cohn Jr. said today.
DR. COHN, professor of surgery at Louisiana State University Medical School, said because of advances in antibiotics,anesthesia, blood banking and fluid management, the general surgeon is able to do more extensive surgery than ever before for a wide variety of ailments that are neither unusual nor dramatic.
Interviewed at the Roosevelt prior to a meeting of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Cohn said operations of the gall bladder, pancreas and colon, although not unusual, could be attacked more vigorously than at any time in the past.
DISCUSSING the role of antibiotics in gastrointestinal surgery, he said that they are helpful \vherever it is possible to use them to reduce bacteria count for other special purposes.
Pointing out the value of meetings such as the one currently being held at the Roosevelt, Dr. Cohn said, "almost every general surgeon does gastrointestinal operations today. Most of them have ideas regarding the value, or lack of value, of antibiotics, for example. Their basis
for judgment is usually only a few cases, but we can offer evidence gathered in 360 clinical cases where the use of antibiotics during certain operations was helpful."
Dr. Cohn said he joined his colleagues in hailing dramatic accomplishments but the greatest value for the average prac-tioner was often held in discussions of everyday cases. PHOTO: DR. ISIDORE COHN JR.
