Cancer of the rectum : especially considered with regard to its surgical treatment Jacksonian prize essay / by Harrison Cripps.

  • William Harrison Cripps
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cancer of the rectum : especially considered with regard to its surgical treatment Jacksonian prize essay / by Harrison Cripps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The foregoing results cannot be said to be brilliant, but yet when we consider the nature of the disease, and the inevitable death which occurs when Nature is left to run her course, they cannot be said to be a] together unsatisfactory. Moreover, when compared with operations for malignant disease undertaken in other parts of the body, excision of cancer from the rectum gives at least as good results. I believe that, taking one case with another in which excision is suitable, that in from i o to 15 per cent, of the cases a permanent cure may be hoped for, while, even in the remainder, it offers the chance of prolongation of life, and, at least for a while, in comparative comfort. A most distressing symptom of rectal cancer is pain at the seat of the disease. This pain is in no proportion to the extent of the growth, and, indeed, is often more intolerable from a small cancerous ulceration involving the sphincter than from exten- sive disease in the higher part of the rectum. Com- plete relief from this pain is the first and most marked result of the operation. Indeed, the patient will often state on the morning following the opera- tion that a better night has been passed than for months previously. With the removal of disease not only is there cessation of pain, but also the tenesmus and blood- stained discharge ceases, and the patient rapidly improves in general health and strength. If the disease return in distal organs the suffering is usually inconsiderable, while in. the event of a local return there appears to be very little pain compared with that caused by the original growth, a fact probably