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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    will cause excruciating pain, they will be found to have but the slightest effect upon the membranes. These are •often found continuously tense, in correspondence with the tenseness of the uterus itself, and with the constant pain. If now—at a favourable time with regard to the state of the os—the membranes be ruptured, the pains will at once gain in force, and the os will dilate and allow the passage of the foetal head with surprising rapidity- Delivery of the child will be immediately followed by a large quantity of blood, both fluid and clotted. The latter was the first effused, and was the cause of the symptoms; the former was poured out, possibly at an early stage also ; but, generally, as soon as the ovum is disturbed by the rupture of its membranes and the passage of the child towards the world; sometimes immediately subsequent to its birth. On examination the placenta may be found compressed at its centre— •cup-shaped, or compressed or condensed at some parts only, from the pressure to which the earlier effusions have subjected it; but it is not always affected in that way. Subsequent to delivery the patient is in increased danger of death; if she were not completely collapsed before, she now becomes so ; if she were already col- lapsed, she suffers yet a farther shock in the rapid evacuation of her over-distended uterus; and she is very likely to die of a comparatively trifling farther haemor- rhage. About half of the hitherto recorded cases of accidental concealed haemorrhage have terminated fatally. It will be at once apparent from the statement last made that the treatment of these cases is a most im- portant matter ; except under proper management there is but little chance of escape for the subject of this