My work in reference to the Cesarean operation : a word of protest in reply to Dr. Henry J. Garrigues / by M. Saenger.

  • Max Saenger
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: My work in reference to the Cesarean operation : a word of protest in reply to Dr. Henry J. Garrigues / by M. Saenger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    self points out incontrovertibly the great difference existing between the unpremeditated operation by Storer, performed under the stress of circumstances and with insufficient means, and liis own projected operation, previously determined in all its details, and carried out on the living subject in accordance with the programme. A new operation, if it is not performed according to a pre- determined method based on a sound foundation, but is rather the result of an accidental chain of circumstances, remains an isolated fact which does not interest a wider circle unless this single case becomes the basis of a new method. This shows that in the operative field two ways are equally feasible and equally justified: first the operation and from it the method; or, first the method and from it the operation. It can be shown precisely on the example of Ephraim McDowell chosen by Garrigues how erroneous it is to conclude anything further from the historical fact that this surgeon performed the first ovariotomy than that circumstanee alone; to Spencer Wells only are we indebted for the method of ovariotomy and its successful propaganda. None but a method complete in itself has a lasting value and a perma- nent influence on matters relating to operations. In the light of these general explanations, lohat is Saenger’s method of performing the Cesarean section ? Briefly defined: “ Laparo-hysterotomy, performed with all the auxiliaries of modern obstetrics and surgery against the former chief dangers of hemorrhage and infection, with closure of the uterine incision by a mode of suturing adapted to the physiological peculiarities of the organ and firmly established on scientific principles, which com- pletely compensates the injury to the uterus and guarantees healing by first intention; all the methodical and positive improvements in the technique, proposed for the purpose of again restoring to the first place the almost abandoned conservative Cesarean section and to limit it from the Porro operation by the establishment of definite indications.” Before me, no one has formulated such a programme and, what might be the main thing, brought it to its realization in every direction. It is easy for me to furnish the most jmsitive proof of this. It rests on the direct recognition of the jirofession who did me the honor to call the new method of the Cesarean operation—which alone among others, devised at the same time or subsequently, put a stop to the universally victorious Porro operation—after my name, so that to-day every one versed in modern obstetrics knows what is meant by it. When one man
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