Further observations on the structure and treatment of uterine polypi / by Robert Lee.

  • Lee, Robert, 1793-1877.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further observations on the structure and treatment of uterine polypi / by Robert Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be added that variety of tumour of the uterus which consists of erectile tissue, or of cells and dilated arteries and veins. ” In a supplement to this paper, published in the ‘ Medico- Chirurgical Transaction 9 in 1850, I described the manner in which the circulation of the blood is carried on through¬ out the substance of fibrous tumours of the uterus, and demonstrated that, like the walls of the uterus, they are everywhere pervaded by arteries and veins. To illustrate the structure and varieties of uterine polypi, without a knowledge of which it appears impossible that their treatment can be conducted in a scientific manner, a series of preparations and drawings is now placed upon the table of the Society. In the paper now referred to, I observed that ce when any of these tumours pass through the os uteri into the vagina, they may be removed by the ligature or the knife. If the root is soft and slender, the tumour may easily be twisted off with the forceps. In the course of the last twenty years Dupuytren states that he has removed two hundred uterine polypi by excision. Haemorrhage occurred twice in all the cases, and in both instances it was permanently arrested by the tampon. In eight or ten cases after the application of the ligature, death took place from the absorption of pus into the system. Where the root of the tumour is large and thick, I am of opinion that a ligature should previously be passed around it, at as great a distance as is compatible with the removal of the disease.” The histories of forty cases of polypus of the uterus are contained in my ‘ Clinical Reports of Ovarian and Uterine Diseases/ published in 1853. Respecting the results of the treatment adopted in these cases, a recent writer has made the following statement: “ That out of twenty cases of removal of fibrous polypus by ligature, recorded by a most strenuous defender of that operation—Dr. R. Lee—nine, or more than one in three, had a fatal result; a mortality more than double that of the operation of lithotomy, as high as that which occurs in