Observations on some of the more important diseases of women / by James Blundell ; edited by Thomas Castle.

  • Blundell, Dr., 1790-1878.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on some of the more important diseases of women / by James Blundell ; edited by Thomas Castle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    rupture of the bladder, and death, may follow.* In such cases i,t- has been proposed + that we should tap the bladder; and, now and then, this practice would seem to be proper enough, and may, perhaps, be the only effectual mode of proceeding in some cases. It has been proposed further, if the reduction of the womb is pre- vented solely by a deficiency of room, that we should divide and open the symphysis pubis ;Purcell,Gardien, and Cruickshank,recom- mended a measure of this kind. I am not aware that it was ever acted on under these circumstances; but if the case were well chosen, I can conceive it might be of use to the patient; at all events, it would render the introduction of the catheter more easy, and the room in the pelvis somewhat more capacious. Alarming as the operation is, it is far from being a fatal one; nevertheless, as I have never myself seen this operation performed, and, indeed, know of no case of retroversion in which it has been attempted, I do not venture to recommend it.]: TAPPING OF THE UTERUS. In a case of retroversion, where the catheter could not be introduced, nor the rectum emptied, I should myself feel inclined to consider the propriety of tapping the uterus, which might. * Mr. Lynn, aSurgeon in Suffolk, knew an instance ofthe urine becoming fatally extravasated in the abdomen, in a case of retroversion ofthe uterus, in consequence ofthe patient's refusal to submit to have the bladder punctured. In this case, the bladder burst or sloughed, and immediately afterwards the woman miscarried, but the uterus after death was found to be still displaced. Medic. Obierv. and Inq. v. p. 388. + Sabatier proposed tapping the bladder; but others, from not having met with any instance in which the urine could not be drawn off by a catheter, or by Baudelocque's plan of raising the cervix uteri with the finger, do not agree to Sabatier's proposal. Ed. X Boivin, Duges, and others question strongly the advantages derivable from such a measure, considering the pubic bones must be separated very far indeed to effect the replacement of the uterus. Ed. § Dr. Hunter advised the introduction of a trochar into the body of the uterus through the posterior parieties of the viscus so as to let off the liquor amnii. Such an operation has been performed, and with success. According to Boivin, Baynham appears to have done it, and Boyer quotes a second successful case recorded in the Recueil des Tlieses de la Faculte de Paris, Ed.