Arterial ligation for irremovable cancer of pelvic organs : technic adapted and amplified / by William Seaman Bainbridge.

  • Bainbridge, William Seaman, 1870-1947.
Date:
[1911?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Arterial ligation for irremovable cancer of pelvic organs : technic adapted and amplified / by William Seaman Bainbridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the removal of necrotic debris is indicated, the procedure may cost the life of the patient from hemorrhage unless the curettage is preceded by ligation. An illustration of this occurred some time ago in the New Aork Skin and Cancer Hospital. One patient refused laparotomy She was curetted, and everything was done for her that was possi¬ ble under the circumstances, but she died some weeks later in the hospital from hemorrhage which could not be controlled by styptics and packing. Another patient, who occupied a bed in the same ward at the sarnie time, submitted to laparotomy; the vessels were ligated, after which curettage was done, and she gained in flesh and strength, left the hospital in due time, and lived many months. II. Checking Extension of Malignant Growth.— The assumption that a malignant process may be checked by cutting off the blood supply to the affected part seems to have been amply demon¬ strated by the recorded cases, though it must be admitted that there is a wide divergence of opinion on the subject. In some instances, where, because of the circumscribed nature of the growth, the possibilities of a more complete cut¬ ting off of the blood supply were greater, as in the cases reported by Packard, Treves, Wherry and others, cure seemed to follow the procedure. This naturally leads to the thought that if, in advanced and hopeless cases, there is any real retardation of the process, in cases not so far advanced, where the method may be applied without injury of any kind, the possibilities for permanent arrest of growth warrant a wider application of the starvation ligature than has vet been made. The author has recently begun to employ arterial ligation in a series of cases less advanced than those herewith reported, and yet seemingly beyond radical removal of the dis¬ eased structures. While the method is employed in the cases