left cervical esophagogastrostomy. The patient recovered normally, but ceased the practice of sword swallowing. A 27-year-old woman reported neck pain and a single episode of hematemesis (vomiting blood) after pricking her throat while practicing her sword swallowing act with a sharp dagger. The injury was found to be immediately below the esophageal sphincter, and the patient was admitted to intensive care and placed on intravenous antibiotics and a proton-pump inhibitor. She recovered well and returned to all previous activities with the exception of sword swallowing. Contributions to medicine The abilities of sword-swallowers have proven useful to the progress of medical knowledge, specifically in the development and advancement of upper endoscopy. In 1868, Adolf Kussmaul of Freiburg, Germany, performed an esophagoscopy on a sword-swallower using a rigid 47 cm tube, mirrors, and a gasoline lamp. The apparatus, an early endoscope, allowed him to examine the esophagus and the fundus of the stomach. In 1897, a Scottish physician named Stevens performed digestive experiments with a sword swallower assistant. Small metal tubes, pierced with holes and filled with meat, were swallowed and after a time regurgitated, allowing Stevens to examine the extent of the digestion that had taken place. In 1906, a doctor named Cremer performed an electrocardiogram by passing an electrode down the esophagus of a sword swallower. This approach has since been proven useful by numerous studies; esophageal recording at a location in proximity to the heart improves signal detection. From 2003 to 2006, a research study on the effects of sword swallowing was conducted by Dan Meyer of the Sword Swallowers Association International and Dr. Brian Witcombe, consultant radiologist at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester, England. The results were published in the British Medical Journal. The paper won the team the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine at Harvard. In January 2006, Dan Meyer worked with physicians and researchers in swallowing disorders at Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee to explore whether the techniques involved in sword swallowing could be used to help patients who suffer from swallowing disorders such as dysphagia or achalasia. In 2007, Dai Andrews worked with Dr. Sharon Caplan at Johns Hopkins University on a study to determine whether sword swallowing could be used to help patients who suffer from achalasia, or those who had suffered severe throat trauma. Known sword swallowers Modern sword swallowers include: Aerial Manx Andy