Gastroenterology and hepatology--the diagnostic data

The Annual Reports of the Mount Sinai Hospital from the 1850s, and the Mount Sinai Hospital Reports for 1897-1906, make it possible to trace the discharges of gastroenterological inpatients, and (for a few years) of outpatients. Fully computerized diagnostic data have only been available since 1986. In the 19th century, about 20% of the outpatients had digestive disorders, the commonest of which were gastralgia/gastritis/dyspepsia, gastroenteritis, oropharyngeal complaints and constipation. A similar proportion of inpatients had digestive diagnoses, but the four disorders listed above decreased markedly in the second half of the 19th century, so that by the turn of the century the commonest diseases were typhlitis (appendicitis), hemorrhoids and other anal problems. By the 1990s, digestive diseases accounted for only 5% of total admissions, hepatobiliary diagnoses being the commonest group. Some cancers such as gastric and esophageal showed little change, while colorectal increased markedly. Some newly recognized diseases, such as peptic ulcer, waxed and then waned, while colitis and regional enteritis came and have continued to increase. Other new diagnoses, such as autointoxication and visceroptosis, flashed into prominence and then disappeared totally, presumably because they were nondiseases.