Concealed accidental haemorrhage / by J. Ashburton Thompson.

  • Thompson, John Ashburton, 1848-1915.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Concealed accidental haemorrhage / by J. Ashburton Thompson. 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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    on rupture of the uterus and that under consideration.. But often the patient describes it in other ways ; my own patient called it a tearing or cutting pain, and; objected at once to its being called “ bursting/’ In that case the pain comes nearer in kind to that which fol- lows on rupture, but its diffusion over the whole uterus-; and indeed its severity too are points of difference- between it and the latter. Occasionally tenderness of' the uterus is noted, and that is another symptom which I feel inclined to think ought to have been noted much oftener than is the case. Tenderness is said to have been present in but five of the thirty-three cases. But it is over-distension which causes the continuous pain and, since the uterus is filled with contents which are- in great part fluid, pressure upon any part of it must, cause such an increase of pressure at every part of it as- shall increase the pain too. Tenderness is “pain upon pressurehence I think that tenderness would have- been oftener observed had it been looked for. The feebleness or absence of uterine contraction is- another sign which may be regarded as constant. Most often, as I have before observed, if not invariably, this- kind of haemorrhage precedes labour ; it excites labour, much as the injection of warm water between the uterus- and membranes excites it. Hence in some cases it will be found that the throes are absent because labour has- not begun. Should the case be watched for a time, it will presently be observed that some feeble throes are superadded to the continuous pain. They may recur with regularity, yet they are always very slight, and appear to gain nothing in force as time goes on ; never- theless, for the same reason that the uterus is tender they may cause excruciating accessions of pain, and so-