A short treatise on the section of the prostate gland in lithotomy; with an explanation of a safe and easy method of conducting the operation on the principles of Cheselden / By C. Aston Key.

  • Charles Aston Key
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short treatise on the section of the prostate gland in lithotomy; with an explanation of a safe and easy method of conducting the operation on the principles of Cheselden / By C. Aston Key. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    readily felt, and the hand of the operator should be checked as soon as he feels the prostate has given way. It will be evident that the most important part of the operation is thus divested of that blind force, which renders it hazardous in the hands of the most dexterous, as well as of the most unskilful Lithotomist. I had, for a considerable time past, been in the habit of operating on the dead subject with the instruments I have described; but until very lately I had no opportunity of trying them on the living subject. To Sir Astley Cooper’s kindness I am indebted for the opportunity, who allowed me to operate on a boy, that had been sent from the country into Guy’s Hospital for the purpose of submitting to the operation. The mode of conducting the operation is as follows:— An assistant holding the director, with the handle some- what inclined towards the operator,* the external incision of the usual extent is made with the knife, until the groove is opened, and the point of the knife rests fairly in the director, which can be readily ascertained by the sensation communi- cated ; the point being kept steadily against the groove, the operator with his left hand takes the handle of the * See Plate 2.
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