Prolapse of the ovaries / by Paul F. Mundé.

  • Paul F. Mundé
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prolapse of the ovaries / by Paul F. Mundé. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are larger than those of women in any other condition, ex¬ cept the puerperal state (see Hennig’s table), displace¬ ments of these organs are rarely met with; while the re¬ laxed ligaments of parous, and, to some extent also, violated but nulliparous, women allow the ovaries to move away from the uterus. Besides, the latter class of cases suffer very much more frequently from downward and retro-dis¬ placements of the uterus, conditions very decidedly favor¬ ing, as my figures show, prolapse of the ovaries. The two excellent diagrams by Savage, Figure i on Plates II. and XI. respectively, representing transverse sections of the female abdominal cavity, show very plainly the loose at¬ tachments of the ovaries on the posterior plane of the broad ligament; and in Plate XL, Figure i, the facility with which they may prolapse into the gaping Douglas’ pouch when the uterus is displaced downward. A cut which I first found in Sinety’s new work on Gynecology,1 vol. ii., p. 659, but which, I believe, originally appeared in Hodge’s Atlas, shows very plainly the depth and relations of the retro-lateral peritoneal pouches into which the ovaries most frequently prolapse. In women with relaxed, compressible abdominal walls, and a soft, non-rigid vaginal vault, it is frequently possible to palpate the normal, non-prolapsed ovaries, one finger (preferably the left index for the left, the right for the right ovary) pushing up the corresponding vaginal cul-de-sac, and the other hand pressing down the abdominal wall immedi¬ ately over it. By then rolling the pelvic organs gently over the internal finger with the external hand, the ovary can fre¬ quently (and the tube occasionally) be felt, and its size and shape clearly mapped out. It may be compared in feel to a small compressed fig. It is situated about midway be¬ tween the inner border of the fundus uteri and the ileo-psoas muscle or pelvic margin, and readily slips from between the palpating fingers. If perfectly healthy, moderate pal¬ pation gives but slight pain, and that of a dull character. The left ovary is usually more readily palpable than the 1 Manuel pratique de la gynecologie, par de Sinety. Paris, 1879.
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