Fistula, haemorrhoids, painful ulcer, stricture, prolapsus and other diseases of the rectum : their diagnosis and treatment.

  • Allingham, William, 1829-1908.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fistula, haemorrhoids, painful ulcer, stricture, prolapsus and other diseases of the rectum : their diagnosis and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    at once. One other point: always encourage your patient to tell you directly lie has any pain in or near the healing fistula; never pooh! pooh ! his complaints; often he will be the first to discover by the existence of some unpleasant sensation the commencement of a small abscess or sinus and will be able also to indicate its situation. While I am wilting this, I have under my care a gentleman upon whom I operated three weeks ago for severe fistula on the left side and which has nearly healed; four days back he told me he had slight pain on the right buttock three inches from the anus. I examined but could feel nothing, and my patient told me all his abscesses on the left side com- menced with the same sort of pain, and he felt sure another abscess was forming; and the very next day I detected deep-seated fluctuation. I immediately cut down and let out an egg cup full of matter, had this been neglected the result would have been serious. There can be no fixed rules laid down for the treat- ment of these wounds; it is in getting them to heal quickly that the skilful surgeon is shown. When to administer stimulants, when tonics, to feed the patient well, yet not to over-feed him, are all points in which common sense, practical knowledge, and the observ- ance of apparently small matters will best guide us. There are few surgical cases that call more for intelli- gence and watchfulness on the part of the surgeon than the after treatment of a bad fistula. I have often seen patients whom the best and most eminent surgeons in London have utterly failed to cure, because they left the patient after the operation almost entirely in the hands of persons who had not