Gastroenterology and hepatology - The diagnostic data

The Annual Reports of the Mount Sinai Hospital from the 1850s, and the Moun t Sinai Hospital Reports for 1897 - 1906, make it possible to trace the dis charges of gastroenterological inpatients, and (for a few years) of:outpati ents. Fully computerized diagnostic data have only been available since 198 6. In the 19th century, about 20% of the outpatients had digestive disorder s, the commonest of which were gastralgia/gastritis/dyspepsia, gastroenteri tis, oropharyngeal complaints and constipation. A similar proportion of inp atients had digestive diagnoses, but the four disorders listed above: decre ased markedly in the second half of the 19th century, so that by the turn o f the century the commonest: diseases were typhlitis (appendicitis), hemorr hoids and other anal problems. By the 1990s, digestive diseases accounted f or only 5% of total admissions, hepatobiliary diagnoses being the commonest group. Some cancers such as gastric and esophageal showed little change, w hile colorectal increased markedly. Some newly recognized diseases, such as peptic ulcer, waxed and then waned, while colitis and regional enteritis c ame and have continued to increase, other new diagnoses, such as autointoxi cation and visceroptosis, flashed into prominence and then disappeared tota lly, presumably because they were nondiseases.