Some salient points in the diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of appendicitis / by John B. Deaver.

  • Deaver, John B. (John Blair), 1855-1931.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some salient points in the diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of appendicitis / by John B. Deaver. 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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    way is recovery assured. To leave an appendix which has sloughed off, or has a perforation in it, or which has been intensely inflamed by migration of microorganisms through its walls, with the cer- tainty of fecal fistula or subsequent attacks, I be- lieve to be bad surgery. It is my practice to remove the appendix in all cases. Certain it is that by the proper disposition of gauze and careful attention to technic, an appendix which is deeply imbedded in a wall of lymph, whether it makes a portion of the abscess-cavity or not, can be re- moved, and the dangers which attend its removal are far less than those which occur when it is allowed to remain. A practice which I believe is a frequent one is simply to evacuate the collection, there being no attempt made to remove the appen- dix if it be not plainly visible. This I consider, with all due deference to the surgeons who practice it, incomplete surgery. Cases of congenital absence of the appendix are reported, but the congenital absence probably exists only in the mind of the searcher. I have never failed to find the appendix in chronic cases, although many times I have been able to find it only after a prolonged search and a careful dissection. I beg the privilege of a few more minutes to re- late the report of a case upon which I operated November 23, 1895, and which will serve, I hope, the purpose intended, namely, to disabuse the minds of those among you who are still of the belief that a patient who has apparently recovered from an acute attack has safely passed the danger- point, and that operation is superfluous: