The modern treatment of stone in the bladder by litholapaxy : a description of the operation and instruments with cases illustrative of the difficulties and complications met with / by P.J. Freyer.

  • Freyer, P. J. (Peter Johnston), Sir, 1851-1921.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern treatment of stone in the bladder by litholapaxy : a description of the operation and instruments with cases illustrative of the difficulties and complications met with / by P.J. Freyer. 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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    THE INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED IN LITHOLAPAXY. To appreciate fully the great revolution in the surgery of the bladder involved in Bigelow's operation, it will be necessary to give a brief sketch of the history of lithotrity ; and this will involve a description of the development of one of the essential instruments of the modern operation—viz., the lithotrite. Though cutting operations of various kinds, for stone, have been practised from the earliest ages, it was not till the beginning of the present century that the idea of removing a stone by pulverizing it within the bladder, and allowing the debris to escape by the natural passages, was entertained. The first to crush a stone on scientific principles was the great French surgeon Civiale, in 1824. This he effected by an instrument named the trilabe, a species of drill consisting of a central axis and three claws, which, after introduction of the instrument into the bladder through the urethra, were made to project and catch the stone. The reduc- tion of the stone to fragments was effected by drilling holes in it in various directions, till it crumbled into ddbris. The operation, which he named lithotrity,