Proceedings of the Philadelphia County Medical Society - Vol.8 (Session of 1887).

  • Philadelphia County Medical Society
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of the Philadelphia County Medical Society - Vol.8 (Session of 1887). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    By THOMAS S. K. MORTON, M.D. [Read January 26, 1887.] The term “ abdominal section for traumatism ” is meant to include those cases where the operator deliberately opens the belly, or greatly enlarges an existent wound for the purpose of discovering intraperi- toneal wounds, and, if they are present, repairing them as far as possible, together with more or less final cleansing of the peritoneal cavity. Such cases as those in which wounds of prolapsed viscera are simply repaired, and the parts returned to the abdominal cavity, are not included. My excuse for this paper is, that I have been so fortunate as to be associated as an assistant to more than one-half of all the cases that have occurred in Philadelphia. In four of the cases I have been the assistant, and in three the care-taker also. These four cases have been treated in the Pennsylvania Hospital. I had at first expected to read merely the history of these cases, and make a feAV remarks, but the matter grew so interesting that I deter- mined to make a study of the subject, and I believe that I have can- vassed the literature of the world. I must express great obligations to the gentlemen who permit me to report their cases for the first time to-night, and to Dr. Billings, of Washington, who had translated for me the reports of two Russian cases. I have used the libraries of the College of Physicians and Pennsylvania Hospital, and have found the Index Medicim of great service. I have prepared these large tables, which contain a mine of information. They represent an abstract of every case which I have been able to find in the literature of the subject. I shall, in the first place, read a few statistics derived from the tables. The total number of cases is 57. Of these, 36 died, and 21 recovered : mortality, 63 per cent. These 57 cases were done by 42 operators, viz., 23 United States operators did 35 operations, with 11 recoveries, and 24 deaths: mor- tality, 67 per cent.