The treatment of dropsy of the gall-bladder by operation (cholecystotomy) : with notes of a successful case / by George Brown.

  • Brown, George.
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of dropsy of the gall-bladder by operation (cholecystotomy) : with notes of a successful case / by George Brown. 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.

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    ON THE TREATMENT OF DROPSY OF THE GALL- BLADDER BY OPERATION, WITH NOTES OF A SUCCESSFUL CASE. At a meeting of the Medical Society of London, held on October 17th, 1859, Dr. Thudichum read a paper on the Pathology and Treatment of Gall-Stone, in which he suggested for the consideration of sur- geons the advisability in appropriate cases of an operation for the re- moval of gall-stones through the abdominal walls.* From the report of the meeting {Lancet, October 22nd, 1859, page 421), the idea does not appear to have been received with much favour by the sur- geons present, and Mr. Hilton, the President, said that he thought there were many difficulties in the way of such operation. He should like to hear from physicians the number, nature, and prospects of such cases in which the operation for extracting gall-stones could be thought of. The operation would be impossible in cases where the calculus was closely embraced by the bladder. But, from his knowledge, he thought it not impossible that cases fit for operative relief might present them- selves ; and, in cases of distended gall-bladder (which might occur with calculi), an operation such as the author had mentioned had actually been performed with success. I have looked through several medical journals, but have been unable to find any report of such a case. The only case at all like it of which I could find any notice is one which was brought before the Medical Society of London by the late Mr. Harvey, on January 29th, 1849, in which he tapped an abdominal tumour which had been diagnosed to be an ovarian cyst, but which ultimately proved to be connected with the liver, and drew off, it is stated, no less than sixteen quarts of fluid. The patient recovered from the operation ; but some months after the cyst refilled, and the patient died from exhaustion. (Vide Lancet, vol. i, 1849, page 183.) It is singular that, although nearly twenty years have passed since Dr. Thudichum proposed to cut down on the gall-bladder in suitable cases, the operation has scarcely occupied the attention of the profes- sion (although its feasibility must have occurred to many surgeons) until the publication of Dr. J. Marion Sims’s paper in the British Medical Journal of June 8th last. When Dr. Sims wrote that paper, he was under the impression that the operation was unique; but t Dr. Thudichum’s paper was published in the British Medical Journal for November 19th, 1859.