An account of some new instruments for tying polypi of the uterus, nose and ear, and enlarged tonsils : with cases / [William Rawlins Beaumont].

  • William Rawlins Beaumont
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of some new instruments for tying polypi of the uterus, nose and ear, and enlarged tonsils : with cases / [William Rawlins Beaumont]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the operation of excision: I mean that the operation by ligature may be performed without any visual examination, whilst that by excision cannot; and besides, some uterine polypi may not admit of being drawn so far down as to allow of their removal by excision without the risk of causing unnecessary pain, by acci¬ dentally wounding the vagina. Of the danger from haemorrhage, it is true that I can find but one case on record, that related by Zacutus, in which a patient has lost her life from this cause after excision; but I think the case of enormous uterine polypus, related at p. IT, shows that there would have been the greatest risk from haemorrhage had excision been performed without the previous application of a ligature; and moreover, the following passage from Mad. Boivin and M. Duges tends also to maintain that excision may not at all times be without danger from haemorrhage. “ On con- nait l’observation de Yacoussain donnee par Levret, observation remarquable h cause des pulsations qu’on sentoit dans le pedicule de la tumeur. Ces observations ont leur utilite ; elles nous font com- prendre du moins que la resection du pedicule n’est pas toujours une operation aussi peu importante que 1’ont affirme plusieurs praticiens.” The advantage of tying polypi of the nostril over extracting these growths is merely, that the former is by far the least painful operation of the two; and, I believe, it may be as likely to prevent a reproduction of the tumour. I have tied but one nasal polypus, above two years ago, which, so far as I am aware, has not yet been reproduced: it had not, I know, eight months after the operation. Polypi, or fungi, growing from the membrana tympani, or from the adjoining part of the meatus externus of the ear, I believe, have never before been tied, at least near to their attachment. I could find no contrivance for the purpose, at the instrument makers’, nor have I met with any described in works on diseases of the ear. M. Itard, however, mentions a case related by Fabricius Hildanus,