An address entitled: Some reflections, mainly ethical, on the present position of operations in the practice of surgery / [Sir William H. Bennett].

  • Bennett, William H. (William Henry), Sir, 1852-1931.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address entitled: Some reflections, mainly ethical, on the present position of operations in the practice of surgery / [Sir William H. Bennett]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    satisfy the requirements of the public services, the cases of this class in which operation is really indi¬ cated are few, save those in which objective trouble, such as pain or rapid increase in size, is present. Now, the operation for varix in sound subjects between the ages of 18 and 45 years may be regarded to be as safe as any operation can be, and need not therefore in itself be regarded seriously— a fact which, I cannot help feeling, leads to the performance of operations in a certain number of cases of this kind which would not be so treated if the risk of the proceeding were sufficient to lead to a more careful consideration of the bearings of the matter. That this is so, I am compelled to conclude by the fact that cases come under observation in which operations upon varix of the lower limbs have been carried out for the relief of symptoms undoubtedly due to flat-foot which were subse¬ quently relieved by the ordinary treatment for that affection. And cases from time to time come under notice in which pains resulting from nervous disease have been apparently assumed to he due to exten¬ sive varix, which has consequently been operated upon with a view to the radical cure—an error of judgment which might have been avoided if the patellar reflex had been tested. Had the treatment here been of a more dangerous kind I have no doubt
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