Licence: In copyright
Credit: Pregnancy, labour and child-bed with ovarian tumour / by R.G. McKerron. 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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![Owing to the comparative rarity of the combination of pregnancy whth ovarian tumour, the experience even of those who have had the most ample opportunities of observation must form a too restricted basis for a complete account of this serious complication. Indeed, few observers have had ex- perience of more than a trifling number of cases. That being so, a satisfactory description can be reached only by collating and analysing the records of published cases. To do this is the task I have set myself, and it has been greatly lightened by the labours of earlier workers—more especially of letter and of Heiberg, whose valuable treatises, published respectivelj’^ in 1861 and. in 1881, are marked by careful research and are as complete as the materials at the time permitted. Since these ])ublications, however, evidence has accumulated and much progress has been made, more particularly in the methods of dealing with the condition. The proportionately large number of cases which have been publislied during the last few years is proof of a growing neces- sity for further evidence in regard to this important subject. At the same time it seems to show that many of the earlier instances of the complication have not been recorded, and that the conclusions drawn from former collections underestimate the frequency of its occurrence. The following description and analysis are based on a series of 1,290 cases. These have been obtained from various sources, among the more important being letter’s well-known disserta- tion,‘ which includes 215, Heiberg’s ^ series of 271 cases, and Dsirne’s table of ovariotomies in pregnancy,^ which furnishes 100.“* The remaining 704 I have myself collected. For the 1 Jetter, Ueher den Einfluss dcr EicrstocksgescUioillste auf Conception, Schivangerschaft, Geburt und Wochenbett, Tubingen, 1861. Heiberg, loc. cit. ® Dsirne, Archiv f. Oyndlc., Bd. 43, Heft 3. ^ Dsirne’s table includes 133 cases, but 35 of these are in Heiberg’s collection.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21964476_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
