The rectum and anus : their diseases and treatment / by Charles B. Ball.

  • Charles Bent Ball
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The rectum and anus : their diseases and treatment / by Charles B. Ball. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    39/450 (page 23)
    Chap. II.] Partial Occlusion of Anus. The treatment of congenital anal stenosis must Le conducted on the same lines as those laid down for acquired stricture. There is, however, a much better prospect of doing permanent good by mechanical dilatation than in those cases in which the stricture is due to cicatricial contraction. The best of all bougies is the mother's index tinger introduced daily into the bowel. Mr. Morgan* records two remarkable cases in which a curious congenital malformation produced a partial occhision of the anus. In the first case, a male child, aged six months, was taken to the hospital on account of the pain which he suffered whenever motions were passed. The pain was such as to cause the child to cry continuously before and after the bowels were relieved. The body was well formed and otherwise healthy, but on examining the anus, which was of usual size and in proper position, tliere was found to be a band of tissue passing from a point corresponding to the apex of the coccyx to the median raphe of the scrotum, with the posterior ex- tremity of which it was continuous. The band was about three-quarters of an inch long, and was attached at both ends, the remainder forming a thick free cord which lay below the aperture of the anus : while from the centre of the band there ran a small branch of similar tissue which was attached to the skin of the left buttock, and was about half an inch in length. The skin which covered the central band exactly resembled that of the scrotum, shrinking and con- tracting upon stimulation, and it was so placed that any matter passed per anum must cause it to be stretched, thus accounting for the pain which attended every relief of the bowels. The whole band was removed by cutting the attached ends with the scissors. The wound healed at once, and the child . * Lamet, Oct. 22, 1881.