Internal urethrotomy : are the benefits to be derived from it, as now advocated for the relief of stricture, commensurate with its dangers? / by Ambrose L. Ranney.

  • Ranney, Ambrose L. (Ambrose Loomis), 1848-1905.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Internal urethrotomy : are the benefits to be derived from it, as now advocated for the relief of stricture, commensurate with its dangers? / by Ambrose L. Ranney. 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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    surgery of the urinary organs can question that unfortunate events must sometimes happen.” Sir William Fergusson * * * § makes the following statements: “ Like all cutting operations, internal urethrotomy is not de- void of danger. Deaths have been recorded, besides evils from shock, haemorrhage, and other annoyances. I can posi- tively state, from my own personal observation, that it is not always followed by entire relief from after annoyances, as we have been led to expect.”f It may be offered as an objection to the statements of au- thorities such as these, that writers upon general operative surgery are forced, by the responsibilities of their position as authors, to err on the side of conservatism; and that those who have more exhaustively studied the special department of urethral diseases would be our best guides in deciding the question. Let us see, therefore, how the statements of such authors compare with some of those previously quoted. In the last edition of Dr. Bumstead’s work, edited by Dr. B. W. Taylor,X the following passages may be found: “ Hse- morrhage is not infrequently an unpleasant accident following operations upon stricture. Internal urethrotomy is not free from the danger of haemorrhage for ten days after the opera- tion. Curvature of the penis is met with in many instances following internal urethrotomy of the penile urethra. It may exist to such an extent as to impair or entirely prevent sexual intercourse. The multiplicity of means devised to arrest haemorrhage is suggestive of the liability of its occurrence. § “ If I had only a 1 stricture of large caliber,’ presenting no ob- struction to the urine and occasioning no inconvenience, no argument drawn from possible ills in the future could per- suade me to be subjected to the knife, and what a surgeon would not have done to himself he has no right to recommend to others” In reviewing this work from which we have just quoted, * “ System of Practicul Surgery,” London, 1870, p. 702. f The italics are my own. t “Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases,” Philadelphia, 1879, p. 318.