Elm tents for the dilatation of the cervix uteri / by Horatio R. Storer.

  • Storer, Horatio Robinson, 1830-1922.
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elm tents for the dilatation of the cervix uteri / by Horatio R. Storer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    4/12
    Into the discussion of the general indications of uterine tents— their advantages in many cases, their necessity in some, I have no intention here to enter. I am, however, satisfied that the matter is one demanding early and thorough revision—insufficiently under- stood by most men abroad—hardly at all at home. Few more important steps have been made during the present century than the proposal of sponge tents for the diagnosis of intra- uterine polypi, carcinoma of the fundus, and other abnormal states * ■ * of the uterine cavity. His memoir upon them, would by itself have established Dr. Simpson's reputation—in whose hands they at once became the key to cases otherwise perfectly unintelligible. The well-made sponge tent, under which term I do not mean to include a large proportion of those sold as such here and elsewhere, is, in Ihc majority of cases, perfectly adapted for its immediate ob- ject. It opens up the os and cervix speedily and thoroughly, and in most instances, I do not hesitate to add, safely. There have been cases, however, and more frequent perhaps than would gene- rally be believed—cases not on record, their true nature often not suspected—where dangerous and even fatal symptoms have super- vened upon the use of sponge. Quite a number of instances where this has occurred, in the practice of different gentlemen, have now come to my knowledge—several of them I have indeed seen. Whether these could have been easily prevented, or even foreseen, I am not at all prepared to affirm—but that they may occur, I am certain. yTo these results, sudden accidents or the gradual development qf disease, sponge of itself, as it. were, predisposes. Its chief ex- cellences, its rapid and great expansibility, may at once become its greatest dangers. If there be present unhealed lacerations of the cervix, so common after recent delivery, and at times remaining, I have no doubt, long ununited—if that organ or the tissues sur- rounding it, be the seat of disease, whether carcinoma in any stage or otherwise—fatal injury might be at once produced by the force of rapidly expanding sponge—a force whose amount would hardly be imagined. Exerting this powerful pressure in every direction, though more especially upon the sides, it of course follows up the least resistance ; where the cervix has been unusually stubborn and unyielding, I have frequently known it to thrust itself completely back into the vagina ; where a side, or a tissue, or a fibre, were morbidly weak and yielding, or where the slightest crevice existed, we ought not to wonder at any symptoms of peritonitis.