Case of communication between the stomach and external surface of abdomen / by William Robertson.

Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of communication between the stomach and external surface of abdomen / by William Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    CASE OF COMMUNICATION BET WHEN THE STOMACH AND EXTERNAL SURFACE OF ABDOMEN. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, AND PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY, EDINBURGH. [from the monthly journal OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, JANUARY 1851.] Isabella Davidson, an unmarried woman, thirty-six years of age, was admitted to Ward 13 of the Royal Infirmary, on the 11th November 1850. She gave the following history of her case:—She has resided all her life in the parish of Roxburgh, near Kelso, and has been accustomed to labour in the fields. Up to the age of four- teen, her health was remarkably good; about this period, however, she became subject to occasional darting pains in the left side of the epigastrium, and under the cartilages of the lower left ribs. These pains were not increased by pressure,—they continued to recur at intervals for seven years, and were accompanied with no signs of dyspepsia, except costiveness, eructations, and flatulent distension of the abdomen. Her food usually consisted of different preparations of oatmeal, of potatoes, milk, and occasionally of soup and boiled vegetables. Since she attained the age of fifteen, she has menstru- ated regularly. At the age of twenty-two, she gave birth to a child, after an easy labour. When twenty-five years of age, she recollects to have observed a soft elastic tumour (probably flatulent) between Poupart’s ligament and the short ribs of the left side ; it frequently shifted its place, and finally disappeared, when she was twenty-six years old, after an attack of diarrhoea, which lasted for six months. Up to this period she was always stout, and able for work; the diarrhoea did not prevent her from following her usual occupations, and her appetite continued good. In 1842 she first observed a tumour in the left side of the epigas- trium, not exceeding a pea in size. It was hard, painful, tender, but not discoloured ; it increased steadily for two years, when it had attained the bulk of a very large orange. It then began to subside, and in about three months had completely disappeared. Pain and tenderness were still felt in its former situation for about another month (September 1844), when a dark spot, of the size of a half-crown, made its appearance in the epigastrium. At this pe- riod, the patient’s general health first began to suffer; although able BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON, M.D. SUTHERLAND AND KNOX, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH.