A report on laceration of the cervix uteri / by T. B. Harvey ; stenographically reported for the Indiana State Medical Society at Indianapolis, May, 1883.

  • Harvey, T.B.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on laceration of the cervix uteri / by T. B. Harvey ; stenographically reported for the Indiana State Medical Society at Indianapolis, May, 1883. 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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    spite of all your efforts to prevent it; all that you can do is to give chloroform and allow plenty of time to relax the parts. But when it does occur let us admit it, and explain to pa- tient and friends that it is not an uncommon accident of labor; that the physician is always looking out for it, and is there to restore it, and that if properly and immediately treated, the pa- tient will be well in a week. The physician who says that it will not heal by first intention, or that he don't get a good union upon immediate restoration, has either not put it up pro- perly, or does not know what he is talking about. I may say here, and in no spirit of boasting, but only to im- press upon you the necessity of immediate operation for your own defense and the relief of suffering women, that I have had in a large practice in this line but two failures, and these are not to be properly regarded as failures; there was in each case a little fistulous opening, which was readily cured by the application of nitric acid. But this is a digression from the subject, but one of such prac- tical bearing, that I need make no excuse for its presentation. A few words as to the diagnosis of cervical laceration and I am done, for I do not desire to be tedious, and well know how tired you are at this late hour of the day. I may say that the diag- nosis may in some cases be made by the sense of touch, and in other cases can not be so made; however, an intelligent diag- nosis may generally be made by vaginal touch, but if the lacer- ation be bilateral with eversion and hypertrophy, or if the ap- parently enlarged lips be uniformly everted, you may not be able to do so; your fingers in such cases will not indicate the point of laceration. Then the speculum is to be brought into use, and you may dis- cover an effort at cicatrization ; you can see too, that the parts are red, that they are rolled out; in short, that there is both laceration and eversion. By taking a tenaculum in each hand, and attaching one to the anterior and the other to the posterior lip, you can draw the labia apart or draw them together so as to roll in the red hypertrophied tissue, and discover the extent of the laceration. I admit that there are some cases in which it is difficult to determine whether there is or is not laceration ;
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