Case of hydatid tumour of the abdomen, simulating ovarian disease : treated successfully by operation, with remarks / by Thomas Bryant ; reported by Frederick Taylor.

  • Bryant, Thomas, 1828-1914.
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of hydatid tumour of the abdomen, simulating ovarian disease : treated successfully by operation, with remarks / by Thomas Bryant ; reported by Frederick Taylor. 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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    reparative action rapidly appeared. The general condition of the patient Avas always good^ although for some fcAV days she Avas much troubled and depressed from an aphthous condition of her mouth. There Avas never any abdominal tenderness nor signs of inflammation within its cavity. About the 25th some diarrhoea set in; a little medicine^ hoAvever^ soon checked it. At the end of the fourth Aveek the cavity had much contracted; it contained much less fluid, and Avhat came away Avas healthy pus; all constitutional disturbance had fairly ceased. Her general condition Avas good. On July 11, the forty-eighth day, she left the hospital and went home, her residence being in a healthy part of the country. She bore the journey very Avell, having experienced only a little fatigue. Her medical man daily Avashed out the cyst. Her general health also rapidly improved, ]\lr. Bryimt saAV her on July 29. He found her much im- proved ; the Avound was healthy and rapidly contracting; the cavity also was much smaller. Healthy pus came aAvay daily after the washing. Her appetite was good. On August 12 she Avas still improving, and on September 1 the cavity had contracted so much as to contain only an ounce and a half of fluid. Mr. Bryant ordered the abdomen to be strapped up, and the patient to get up. By October 6 the wound had nearly closed. There was no sinus and no discharge, merely a depres- sion. The patient Avas able to get up and walk about. This large cavity had thus completely closed in sixteen weeks; not even a sinus remained. The general health of the patient never sufi’ered materially from the first. The keeping the cyst empty Avas the only surgical point upon Avhich stress Avas laid. Remarks.—The first point that claims attention in the history of this case has reference to its diagnosis, for I believe it possessed features of so peculiar a nature as to form a guide for the future of no mean value. It is true that the ease from the very first was looked upon as ovarian. Its original seat about the right iliac fossa, its gradual and almost painless enlargement, its cystic nature, and, beyond all, the probabilities of the case, tended toAvards the promotion of that idea; and Avhen it Avas tapped in the eighth year of its existence, and a thin clear fluid Avas draAvn off, there