Fourteen cases of ovariotomy / by Thomas Keith.

  • Thomas Keith
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fourteen cases of ovariotomy / by Thomas Keith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    I commenced these oper.ations, nearly two years ago, I have clined operating in nine cases, in whicli the general health was n interfered with, and life not-yet threatened by the disease, on t ground that I was not justiiied in recommending, and the patie not warranted in undergoing, such a formidable operation. Of thes I regret to say, three at least have died. Two died in the count after a first tapping to facilitate their journey to town. Anothe who came to me first about eighteen months ago, I decline though a most favourable case at that time for operation, on th ground that the tumour was merely an inconvenience to her. Sh was very anxious to have it removed, and I agreed to do so as soo as her general health became much atfected. She left disappointed went home, had the cyst injected with iodine, suffered a great deal o pain for several days after the injection ; returned in a few mouths, larger than ever, with her general health much impaired, and asked me now to fulfil my promise, and remove tlie tumour. But I was obliged to decline a second time, on account of the adhesions that had formed in the pelvis after the injection of iodine into the cyst. These were of sucli firmness that the removal of the tumour would have been impossible. The average weight of the tumours removed was a little over 42 lbs.; the average of the fatal cases upwards of 50 lbs., while that of the successful cases was 39 lbs., or, excluding the very large tumour, a little upwards of 31 lbs. Adhesions, generally ex- tensive and often of great firmness, were met with in all the cases except four, and these four recovered without the slightest un- favourable symptom. And, though equally favourable recoveries occurred in some cases where adhesion was great, in not a few a successful result was got with gi-eat difficulty, and after a long and tedious convalescence, with more or less suppuration in the pelvis. In the following case an attempt was made, towards the natural termination of the disease, to save the life of one of the most re- markable women I ever met. She had been repeatedly tapped, and I had in consequence to deal with unhealthy blood, and with a nervous system enfeebled by long and great suffering, and if the attempt was a failure, and her life was thereby shortened by a few months, the unfortunate termination seemed after all to have arisen from rupture of, and ha3morrhage from, the ovary that was left, and which at the time of the operation was apparently in a healthy state —one of those accidental and unforeseen circumstances that every now and then must arise after all capital operations. Case I.—Multilocidar Ovarian Tumour^ tveighing nearly 80 Tbs. Ovariotomy. Death on the second day. In the end of May last, Dr Thomson of Dalkeith asked me to see a married lady, twenty-three years of age, who had just come under his care. She had made a long railway journey the day before, and was in consequence much fatigued. She was so emaciated, and looked
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