Case of fibro-sarcoma or 'desmoid growth' of the abdominal wall / by Alban Doran.

  • Doran, Alban H. G. (Alban Henry Griffiths), 1849-1927.
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of fibro-sarcoma or 'desmoid growth' of the abdominal wall / by Alban Doran. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    4/10 (page 4)
    for much uncertainty still prevails in respect to their nature. He describes a single observation, and, acting on his principle, I follow his example. One fact in respect to desmoid tumours of the abdominal wall seems clear. They are far more frequent in women than in men ; so that the German authorities whom I have already named speak of them as being practically within the domain of gynaeco- logy. In Griitzer’s collection of 38 cases, only 5 occurred in men. Guerrier notes but 2 instances of the tumour in male patients, out of a series of 44, which include 27 not in Griitzer’s statistics. Eight cases noted by Sanger were all in women. The same can be said of Fiirst’s case and of my own. Turning to American authors, out of 17 cases under treatment in the United States, as collected by Dr. Edward 111,* of Newark, New Jersey, and Dr. Charles Reed, of Cincinnati,! only 2 occurred in men. Tlie attention, however, of surgeons who exclusively operate upon women is keenly directed to the abdomen, and certain circumstances en- courage them to record long series of abdominal operations. Hence they are not likely to overlook desmoid tumours. On the other hand, when the same kind of tumour occurs in men, the patients usually come under the care of general hospital surgeons. For many reasons, the cases may then escape record. Hence, perhaps, the disease in question is not so rare in men as the above statistics might lead us to suppose. The surgical registrars of the great metropolitan hospitals are in a position to throw more light on this interesting subject. The position of the tumour bears, apparently, no relation to the sex; in my case it lay low in the left inguinal region, but in Fiirst’s it was found, when still of small dimensions, close to the right hypochondrium. Professor Sanger’s monograph (loc. cit.) is so exhaustive that many more cases must be collected before it can be rivalled, even by an equally capable observer. Some of his conclusions deserve mention and consideration. It would appear that the desmoid tumour may occur in any of the layers which make up the abdominal wall, although it has * “ Desmoid (Fibroid) Tumour of the Abdominal Walls,” ‘ Transactions of American Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists,’ vol. i, 1888. f “ Fibroid Tumours of the Abdominal Wall,” ibid., vol. i. Fink (‘ Prager medicin. Wochenschrift,’ 1890, Nos. 37, 38) states that in six cases under Dr. Gussenbauer’s care all but one occurred in women.