On ovarian dropsy, with cases of ovariotomy / by Thomas Keith, M.D.

  • Thomas Keith
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On ovarian dropsy, with cases of ovariotomy / by Thomas Keith, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    extremities, imperceptible pulse, and collapse. Freely stimulated, this alarming condition passed off by the evening. The vomiting, pain, and distention continued, and for some days her state gave rise to much anxiety. On the sixteenth day, I made an opening by the rectum into the recto-vaginal fossa, and evacuated six or eight ounces of exceedingly foetid bloody fluid. This gave relief, and a few days after there was a spontaneous discharge of several ounces of matter from the lower end of the external incision. By the end of the third week all anxiety on her account was at an end; and though this attack had reduced her to an extreme degree of feebleness and emaciation, her subsequent convalescence, though slow, was uninterrupted. The weight of the cyst-walls and contents of the various cysts was upwards of one hundred and twenty pounds. But a great amount of cyst-fluid was lost during the operation, not included in this estimate, for the sofa on which the patient lay, as well as the blankets and carpet of the room, were soaked through and through ; and this is, so far as I am aware, by far the largest tumour ever re- moved successfully from the living body. It is now five months since this operation was performed. The patient is going about quite well, with every prospect of perfect health and a long life before her. It was the most severe and formidable proceeding I was ever concerned in, and surgery never rescued any one from a miserable death under apparently more hopeless circumstances. Isabella C, ast. twenty-two, from Dundee, recommended to me by Professor Syme, came under my care on the 14th of May last. She had suffered from ovarian disease for about five years, but little inconvenience had resulted till two years ago, when she had severe pain in the left side under the ribs. Since then she has had repeated attacks of pain here and there all over the abdomen. Latterly, the tumour has increased rapidly, and her general health has begun to give way. She was a little woman, considerably emaciated, but of remark- able cheerfulness and fortitude. She measured 41^ inches at the umbilicus, and 20£ between the ensiform cartilage and pubis. The tumour filled up the whole abdomen, and adhesions were supposed to be extensive. No solid masses could be detected. Altogether, she was in a better state of health than any of my previous patients on whom I had operated. She had, however, a red, dry, irritable tongue, and parched lips, and knowing too well, from former ex- perience, how difficult it is to get a patient suffering from ovarian disease out of this condition into a better, and how easily she may pass into a worse state, I did not recommend any unnecessary delay. After allowing her to remain quietly in bed for a few days, I emptied the cyst, removing 27 lbs. 10 oz. of thick dark treacly- looking fluid. I did this to satisfy myself that the tumour was