A short treatise on the section of the prostate gland in lithotomy; with an explanation of a safe and easy method of conducting the operation on the principles of Cheselden / By C. Aston Key.

  • Key, C. Aston (Charles Aston), 1793-1849.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short treatise on the section of the prostate gland in lithotomy; with an explanation of a safe and easy method of conducting the operation on the principles of Cheselden / By C. Aston Key. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    he remarks, “ That the back of the knife being blunt is a security against wounding the rectum when we cut the neck of the bladder from below upwards The concurring testimony of those most likely to be acquainted with the true principles of Cheselden’s operation fully establishes the fact, which to me seems an important one, namely : that the prostate gland was divided in a manner very different from the direction in which the Gorget cuts it. Cheselden’s aim evidently was, to divide the prostate in the depending part of the left lobe, with a considerable inclination towards the rectum. The most dexterous operator with the Gorget cannot effect this: the direction which the Gorget takes is the very reverse of this; it is directed to be inclined upwards, by which the upper surface of the gland only is sliced off1, and the major part of the gland remains whole. In the quotations given above, two points are clearly made out:—first, that the edge of the knife was turned upward ; and, secondly, that the knife was in this position carried into the neck of the bladder behind the prostate gland.