Hydatid disease of the liver : its diagnosis and treatment / by Mortimer Balding.

Date:
[1881?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hydatid disease of the liver : its diagnosis and treatment / by Mortimer Balding. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Aneurism of the abdominal aorta or its branches, of suffi- cient size to be diagnosed during life, would be accompanied by the general signs of aneurism, such as pain, often severe and paroxysmal, tumour, frequently fusiform in shape, over which a bruit can generally be heard and pulsation felt in all directions; but it must be borne in mind that some cases of rapidly growing malignant disease are so vascular as to give rise to fluctuation, bruit, and pulsation. I am unable to find any record of an aneurism of the hepatic artery being diagnosed during life. Malignant disease in the region of the liver would give rise to symptoms similar to those which will be mentioned when speaking of that disease in the liver itself. Care must be taken, in all these cases, that you are not misled by an accumulation of faeces in the colon; but careful attention to and regulation of the bowels will generally decide this point. Enlargements of the gall-bladder may be a source of difficulty in diagnosis, and must always be taken into account when the area of hepatic dulness is increased in this direction. It may be due to simple accumulation of bile from obstruction, suppuration, dropsy, accumulation of gall-stones, or cancer. In the first the fluctuating tumour in the region of the gall-bladder is accompanied by jaundice, absence of bile from the motions, and general enlargement and tenderness of the liver. In the second there is often a history of gall-stones ; there is no jaun- dice, bile is present in the motions, no general enlargement of the liver ; there is pyrexia, generally rigors and night-sweats. The third is a chronic catarrhal condition which has not gone on to suppuration, and is very likely to be confounded with hydatid disease till a portion of the fluid is drawn off. The fourth is of extremely slow growth, very hard but more or less movable, and gall-stones may often be felt to move on each other. In the last the tumour is more fixed, and more or less painful; it is generally accompanied by vomiting, progressive emaciation, and is more rapid in its growth ; it may be primary, but is more often secondary. The principal diseases of the kidney that are likely to