The use of nitric acid in the treatment of uterine disease / Lombe Atthill.

  • Lombe Atthill
Date:
[1873?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The use of nitric acid in the treatment of uterine disease / Lombe Atthill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    surrounded by a wide circle of enlarged vascular papilla. The sound penetrated to the depth of 3^- inches. The diagnosis made was—enlargement of the uterus depending on sub¬ involution, subsequent retroflexion, and endo-metritis. After some preliminary treatment the nitric acid was applied as in the former case. No pain was subsequently expe¬ rienced. After the lapse of six weeks menstruation came on perfectly naturally. She was free from pain in the breasts, and from the ovarian pain. The uterus was, how¬ ever, still retroflected, and a Hodge’s pessary had to be worn. Case VI.—Mrs.-, aged thirty, the mother of five children, miscarried a year and a half ago ; has never been well since ; menstruation appearing at irregular intervals, sometimes scanty, frequently coming in rushes ; suffers from a distressing bearing-down feeling, from pain in the back, and from pain over the left ovary—this last being very distressing. She also complained of pain in the mammce and of nausea, the nausea being constant except for about the three days immediately following the subsidence of the menstrual flow, her sufferings being augmented by a constant desire to micturate. On examination the uterus, which was very painful to the touch, was found to be enlarged, elongated, and retroflected. The cervix was soft and con¬ gested and the os patulous. The case was evidently one of retroflexion depending on subinvolution, with endo¬ metritis and ovarian irritation. Local depletion was freely practised, and the bromide of potassium exhibited ; the fundus being supported by means of a Hodge’s pessary. This treatment was persevered in for upwards of two months, but though the severity of the symptoms was miti¬ gated, no permanent improvement took place. I therefore decided on trying the effects of the nitric acid. I dilated the cervix by the introduction of five pieces of t}ie sea tangle, guarded the cervix by means of the intra-uterine speculum, and applied the acid freely. Some pain was experienced, not however of a severe character, and no constitutional disturbance of any kind followed. In a short time this patient returned home. Three months subse¬ quently I again saw her. She was on the whole decidedly
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