Editing Esophagus (section)

==History==
The word ''esophagus'' ([[British English]]: ''oesophagus''), comes from the {{langx|el|οἰσοφάγος}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|oisophagos}}) meaning ''gullet''. It derives from [[List of Greek and Latin roots in English#Oesophag-|two roots]] ''(eosin)'' to carry and ({{lang|grc-Latn|phagos}}) to eat.<ref name=Harper2014>{{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=Esophagus|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=esophagus&allowed_in_frame=0|work=Etymology Online|access-date=19 March 2014}}</ref> The use of the word esophagus, has been documented in anatomical literature since at least the time of [[Hippocrates]], who noted that "the oesophagus&nbsp;... receives the greatest amount of what we consume."<ref>{{cite book|author=Hippocrates|author-link=Hippocrates|title=Coan prenotions.|year=2010|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-99640-3|edition=1. publ.|translator-last=Jones|translator-first=William Henry Samuel|page=[https://archive.org/details/hippocrates01hipp_0/page/59 59]|url=https://archive.org/details/hippocrates01hipp_0/page/59}}</ref> Its existence in other animals and its relationship with the [[stomach]] was documented by the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] [[naturalist]] [[Pliny the Elder]] (AD23–AD79),<ref>{{cite book|last=Bostock|first=John; Riley, Henry T.; Pliny the Elder|title=The natural history of Pliny|year=1855|publisher=H. G. Bohn|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof03plin/page/64 64]|url=https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof03plin}}</ref> and the [[peristalsis|peristaltic]] contractions of the esophagus have been documented since at least the time of [[Galen]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Brock|first=Galen; with an English translation by Arthur John|title=On the natural faculties|year=1916|publisher=W. Heinemann|location=London|isbn=978-0-674-99078-4|page="Book 3" S8|edition=Repr.|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Galen/natfac.3.three.html}}</ref>

The first attempt at surgery on the esophagus focused in the neck, and was conducted in dogs by [[Theodore Billroth]] in 1871. In 1877 [[Vincenz Czerny|Czerny]] carried out surgery in people. By 1908, an operation had been performed by Voeckler to remove the esophagus, and in 1933 the first surgical removal of parts of the lower esophagus, (to control [[esophageal cancer]]), had been conducted.<ref name=NORTON2008>{{cite book|editor-first=Jeffrey A.|editor-last=Norton|title=Surgery : basic science and clinical evidence|url=https://archive.org/details/surgerybasicscie00nort|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=Springer|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-387-30800-5|edition=2nd|pages=[https://archive.org/details/surgerybasicscie00nort/page/n757 744]–746}}</ref>

The [[Nissen fundoplication]], in which the stomach is wrapped around the lower [[esophageal sphincter]] to stimulate its function and control [[GERD|reflux]], was first conducted by [[Rudolph Nissen]] in 1955.<ref name=NORTON2008 />