A case of typhlitis, with double perforation of the caecum, and peritonitis : in which laparotomy and suture of the gut were followed by recovery / by L.S. McMurtry.

  • McMurtry, L. S. (Lewis Samuel), 1850-1924.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of typhlitis, with double perforation of the caecum, and peritonitis : in which laparotomy and suture of the gut were followed by recovery / by L.S. McMurtry. 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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    PERFORATION OF THE CLECUM, AND PERITONITIS, U WHICH LAPAROTOMY AXD SUTURE OP THE GIT WERE FOLLOWED BY RECOVERY. On the evening of Thursday, January 26, 1888, I was summoned by telegraph to Somerset, Ky., to meet Drs. George Perkins and I. S. Warren, of that town, in consultation. Going by a night train, I joined Drs. Perkins, Warren, and Owens, Sr., at the bedside of the patient at 8 o’clock on the morning of the following day, the 27th. The patient was a well-known young physician. Dr. J. L. Owens, of Somerset, and I reproduce the history of his illness up to tire time of my first visit in Dr. Perkins' own words : “ For sev- eral months prior to the illness of Dr. J. L. Owens he had been subject to occasional attacks of colic. These attacks were not very severe, would occur without warning, were of short duration, and were frequently attended with nausea and vomit- ing. They were attributed to indigestion. On January 10 I was first called to see him, and found him suffering intensely with pain referred to the right iliac region. He had already taken V£-gr. of morphia hypodennaticallv without relief, and his wife was, by his direction, administering chlo- roform when I entered the room. The severity of the pain, with its locality, excited mv suspi- cions of renal colic, which opinion was confirmed by Drs. Warren and Owens, Sr., who joined me soon after my arrival. This opinion was still fur-