A case of fibrous tumour of the uterus / by T.H. Tanner.

  • Tanner, Thomas Hawkes, 1824-1871.
Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of fibrous tumour of the uterus / by T.H. Tanner. 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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    miscarried at the end of a few weeks. Always enjoyed good health until the last two years. Three years ago she first noticed that the catamenia were more abundant than she had been accustomed to, but no remedies were used until twelve months since, when she began to have attacks of flooding. There has been scarcely any interval between these attacks for the last nine months, and for the past four months she has not been free from a discharge of blood for a single day. She is a fine, tall woman, and very stout; but of course the hjemorrhage has weakened her consideral)ly, and she looks now quite exsanguine. There is no history of any particular disease in lier family, and she is unable to account for her present sufferings. On a careful investigation a few days afterwards, I found her very feeble ftnd nervous. The pulse was weak, and fre- quent attacks of palpitation of the heart were complained of. Auscultation of the heart detected a systolic, ansemic, bellows-sound j while a venous bruit was heard in the neck. The abdominal parietes were loaded with adipose tissue, so that it was difficult to learn tlie condition of the viscera; but there was greater dulness over the hypogastric region than elsewhere, and such a sense of I'csistance as would be communicated by a solid tumour. On examining per vaginara, the uterus was found very high up, so that the cervix Avas reached only with difficulty. The os uteri was seen by a long spetulum to be very small, so that a small bougie could not be passed through it. I told her that from my examination I did not consider she had ever been preg- nant ; and she acknowledged that she thought it very probable that clots of blood had been mistaken for the result of ges- tation. She told me that occasionally the uterine discharge was like dirty water, and of a very offensive smell. She had also had excellent medical advice Avithoiit deriving any benefit. Appetite was very bad, so that she quite loathed food. The diagnosis which I made v. as to the effect that there was some small foreign body in the uterus, but what the exact nature of this substance might be was doubtful; while there was also some tumour—probably ovarian or uterine—-