Varicocele and its radical cure / by Octavius A. White, A.M.

  • White, Octavius A.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Varicocele and its radical cure / by Octavius A. White, A.M. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    11/18 (page 9)
    A sufficient amount of experience in diseases of the genito- urinary organs, with quite a large number of most aggravated case| of this ]mrticular malady successfully operated upon, fully justifies us in recommending this plan of procedure as one eminently worthy of trial. Mr. Kedfern Davies,^ of Birmingham, describes, in the Lancet^ a case of varicocele operated upon successfully, in which he applied wire ligatures to the veins, after Ricord's plan, but inconsiderately omitted to provide for their subse- quent removal after the cure had been effected. He was com- pelled reluctantly, therefore, to abandon within the scrotum the metallic knot he had thus so securely adjusted around the morbid veins. Such a case as this alone, though others can be adduced, proves beyond doubt the inocuity of metallic sutures in opera- tions about the scrotum, and, since their employment is in strict accordance with modern surgery, no improvements in this regard can possibly be needed. However unnecessary it may be in many other surgical operations to subject patients to preparation, we believe, with Mr. Bransby Cooper, such course particularly required in these cases. In proceeding to institute any operation about the sac re- quiring the passage of needles, the wise counsels of the experi- enced Yelpeau can never be disregarded without penalty. If the needle be inserted too high and near the ring, he instructs, we run the risk of not entirely separating all the veins of the cord, and of allowing some of those behind to escape; if too low and near the testicle, we hazard giving rise to purulent inflam- mation or an abscess in the small sac. The usual preliminary steps of other approved methods of operating for radical cure of varicocele having been now ob- served, the surgeon carefully separates, from the plexus of veins within the scrotum, the vas deferens with its associate artery-—the former forward and toward the anterior wall of the sac, the latter back and toward the septum scroti. Guard- ing these well apart by means of his thumb and forefinger, he plunges the point of the needle figured below, previously - Lancet^ February 28, 1863, p. 233.