Cases of laceration of the uterus : with remarks / by Thomas Radford.

  • Radford, Thomas, 1793-1881.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of laceration of the uterus : with remarks / by Thomas Radford. 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.

    11/72 (page 9)
    Remarks.—In this case there are several important points worthy of consideration. The infant remained undisturbed within the uterus, and consequently one cause of shock which usually occurs in such cases was absent. It there- fore became difficult to account for the extremely collapsed condition of the patient at the time of my first seeing her. But the post-mortem examination clearly revealed the cause. The large amount of blood which was effused under the peritoneum, and which doubtless had been suddenly lost, accounts for her great vital depression, and explains also why the venesection was not well borne. The rupture of the uterus was caused by the rigid schirrous condition of the os uteri. Most probably the fatal issue might have been averted if I had seen the patient before the accident had happened. The prophylactic treat- ment in such a case would be to endeavour to relax the os uteri by bleeding, &c.; and afterwards, if this desirable change was not effected, then incisions, in sufficient number and extent, should be made into the os uteri: after which, if the natural powers of the woman are found not to be equal to the delivery, then a question would arise whether the long forceps, turning, or craniotomy, should be had recourse to. Case 4.—Anterior laceration of the uterus; fatal. I am unfortunately unable to give a very minute descrip- tion of the following case, only brief notes having been obtained; yet there is connected with it a very instructive lesson. I am indebted to Mr. J. A. Ransome for the statements. His late father kindly lent me the pelvis which belonged to the poor woman who was the subject of this case, with the kind permission to have a cast made from it. The woman was a patient of the Manchester Infirmary; she was twenty-one years of age, and unmarried; she was “ deformed in every partthe deformity, she stated, had commenced in childhood from rickets, and had continued to increase up to the present time; she was at the full