Silver sutures in surgery / by J. Marion Sims.

  • J. Marion Sims
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Silver sutures in surgery / by J. Marion Sims. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In 1845 I conceived the idea of curing vesico¬ vaginal fistula, and entered upon the broad field of experiment with all the ardor and enthusiasm of a devotee. After nearly four years of fruitless labor, silver wire was fortunately substituted for silk as a suture, and lo! a new era dawns upon surgery. This was on the 21st of June, 1849, since which time I have used no other suture in any depart¬ ment of surgery. The American Journal of Medical Sciences for January, 1852, contains my article on “The Treat¬ ment of Vesico-vaginal Fistula,” with full and speci¬ fic directions for every stage of the operation. The silver suture, as then used, I called the “ clamp suture,” on account of its method of action in forc¬ ing, or “ clamping ” firmly together the surfaces to be united. Merely for its historical value, and to show ,the progress of improvement, it is here introduced. Fig. 1, represents the anterior wall of the vagina, the posterior being cut up and laid open, thus exposing the fistula closed by the clamp suture. By perforated shot compressed upon the silver wires, they are secured to leaden cross-bars or “ clamps,” which burrow in the vaginal tissue; the whole remaining till union by the first intention be- • comes firm, when, by clipping off the shots the sutures are removed. In my own hands this method of using
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