Reflections on Petit's operation, and on purgatives after herniotomy / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reflections on Petit's operation, and on purgatives after herniotomy / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    toms have acquired much gravity, I [Richter] an- swer that, if the surgeon, after having decided on the operation, still makes an attempt to reduce, whether with tobacco-smoke, taxis, or other means, and proves successful (the heniia is reduced mth- out opening the sac, and its contents may be dis- eased), why should there not in such a case be reason to fear from the taxis what is feared half or quarter of an hour afterwards from the oper- ation ? Will the surgeon be blameable, if he succeed in his last attempt 1 or will a judicious surgeon abstain for this motive 1 Sliould not the taxis, tobacco-smoke, and all the other means, be rejected, because they all effect reduction without the sac being opened, and because, from the first day of strangulation, the sac’s contents may be diseased 1 . . . Tliis method of operating is too lightly considered, without any of its advan- tages being observed. Why is the sac opened in the operation 1 In order to be able to treat the diseased parts properly, to destroy adhesions, and the cause of the constriction, if it be situated within the sac ; but if there be no diseased adherent parts, if the cause of strangulation be outside the sac, why then open it 1 I see no reason for doing so. Is not opening the sac under such circumstances, to say the least, superfluous and useless ? And would it not be advisable to reduce without opening the sac, merely because there is no use in doing so ? “Petit’s method has other real advantages. It