Lithotrity / by Charles Hawkins.

  • Hawkins, Charles, 1812-1892
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lithotrity / by Charles Hawkins. 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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    nant disease of the bladder, in combination with calculus, of course precludes lithotrity as well as lithotomy. The removal of foreign bodies that have been introduced into the bladder, such as bougies, may be effected with a scoop lithotrite. In cases in which the bladder is unable entirely to empty itself, the urine left soon becomes decomposed and ammo- niacal, irritating the mucous membrane, and causing it to secrete a quantity of phosphate of lime, or phosphate and carbonate of lime, which, being mixed with the mucus and retained in the bladder, gives rise to great irritability of that organ. In such cases the removal of this soft calculous matter is easily accomplished by means of the scoop-lithotrite. But the cause of the mischief remaining, these formations will constantly recur, and in some instances give rise to the opinion that the Surgeon had failed in the previous operation to remove the whole of the formations, which is not always the case. The treatment to be adopted to prevent the forma- tion of calculous matter is the constant washing out of the bladder with warm water. These cases are usually very troublesome; and if this treatment is not persevered in, the disease of the bladder soon sets up disease of the kidney, under which the patient ultimately sinks. Women are naturally, from the formation of the urinary passages, favourable cases for lithotrity; and the operation is to be performed in the manner that has been described previously for the other sex. The cure in women is less pro- tracted than in men, as the fragments pass more readily. There are obvious reasons why it is desirable that women should be placed under the influence of chloroform. It may be said that with women, with hardly an exception, lithotrity is the method to be employed. It is very generally admitted that children are not well fitted for lithotrity, and that lithotomy should in their cases be performed, not only on account of the great success attending that mode of operating at an early period of life, but also on account of the necessarily small size of the instru- ments to be used rendering it difficult to have them made of
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