Removal of a dropsical ovarium / by George Southam.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Removal of a dropsical ovarium / by George Southam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    of the plaster were destroyed by the oozing of ascitic fluid through the wound immediately after the operation. This circumstance is an additional proof that the peritoneum is not so susceptible of inflammation from irrita- tion as many have supposed. Whether the ligatures will become encysted, or, what is more probable, they will ultimately be discharged by means of abscsccss, it is at resent difli- cult to prognosticate. If any pecu- liarities occur in the after progress of the case, 1 shall feel it my duty to im- part them to the profession. REMARKS ON THE OBJECTIONS TO THE OPERATION. With respect to some objections urged against the operation, as I believe that they are more imaginary than real, it may be well to offer a few remarks upon them. It has been alleged, that] although ovarian tumors ultimately prove fatal, yet, by the interposition of remedial means, the patient’s life may be pro- longed for several years in tolerable comfort, whilst there is a great pro- bability of death immediately following extirpation. It is no doubt true that individuals have lived many years in comparative ease with this disease, but I am inclined to think they bear a very small proportion to those who, from an early period, are in a constant state of suffering, which often causes death in a very few years, and not unfrequently in twelve or eighteen months.* Dr. Bright has given the history of seven cases, which show that the dis- * y We Bright’s Records of Ovarian Tumors, puy s Hospital Reports, 1838. Dr. Seymour re- lates the particulars of a case where the disease appears to have run its course in six months.— illustrations of Diseases of the Ovaria, 1830, P- 07, 68. ease if left to itself destroys life in about three years from the time it is first detected; an average by no means overstated, when we consider the pre- mature deaths it occasions by impeding parturition. References to eighteen such cases, comprehendingthirty-eight lives, are given by Dr. Merriman in the 10th volume of the Medico-Chirurg. Trans- actions, from which it appears nine women died; three recovered imper- fectly, six perfectly. Of the children, sixteen were still born ; four were alive; so that the lives actually preserved amounted to only twelve, the deaths to' twenty-six.* It is very doubtful whether most of the remedies proposed to retard the progress of the complaint have not rather accelerated its fatal termination; and from the following table, it will be seen that paracentesis, which is gene- rally considered the most effectual palliative, not only affords a very tem- porary relief, but is by no means un- attended with danger. * Synopsis of Difficult Parturition, 4tli edition,
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