A case of ruptured uterus / by Henry Gore Clough.

  • Clough, Henry Gore.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of ruptured uterus / by Henry Gore Clough. 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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    present determine, not being able to recover the notes made at the time. Having maturely' considered all the circumstances, I judged it expedient to perform cephalatomia immediately ; this being effected, she was left to obtain some repose. On the 22d, about two in the afternoon, with the assistance of Mr. Andrews, of Crawford Street, then my pupil, I effected, with much difficulty, the delivery of a large male child. The diarrhoea, before mentioned, continued for six weeks after the delivery ; but she recovered much better, upon the whole, than could have been expected. As elucidative of the second labour of Elizabeth Danielli, in which she died by rupture of the uterus, I have thought right to premise this short account of the first. The danger from which the patient so narrowly escaped in the first labour, occasioned it to be urged to her husband and her friends, that in the event of her becoming again pregnant, it Mould be reasonably expedient to induce premature labour. About the beginning of February 1814, she becanrc again pregnant; but being desirous to have, as she bad been taught to believe she might, a living child at the seventh month, and her husband noUconsenling to the inducing labour before that time had elapsed, the operation was deferred until I was apprehensive the advantages to be derived from it were not longer, in her ease decidedly, to be expected. Although I had been successful in the former labour, and, under great impediments, had delivered her of a very large child, I felt convinced that if she proceeded on to the end of nine months, the case would certainly be one of extreme hazard, and of, probably, fatal termination. Under this conviction, it was determined now to bring on labour, notwithstanding the possibility of that step having been too long deferred. On the 25th of September, about four in the afternoon, 1 rup- tured flic membranes, and the liquor amnii passed off by degrees. About forty-eight hours after the membranes had been ruptured, pains came on, and the os uteri began to dilate. I was then, (Tuesday the 27 th,) at four in the afternoon, requested to at- tend. I found the os uteri sufficiently dilated to admit two fingers; the child being very high up in the superior aperture of the pelvis, the presenting parts could not be determined. As the os uteri became further dilated, the parts that presented were ascertained to be both arms, and the left lower extremity on the right side, and the head on the left, strongly wedged in the brim of the pelvis by powerful uterine action ; 'which action continued without intermission near four hours. During this time I had made frequent attempts to return the arms, and