On ovarian dropsy : with cases of ovariotomy / by Thomas Keith.

  • Thomas Keith
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On ovarian dropsy : with cases of ovariotomy / by Thomas Keith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    extreme, and her strength exhausted. The effect of the tapping had been most disastrous, for though the opening in the skin had healed, the opening in the cyst wall remained patent, and as the cyst refilled, which it did in a few days, tire secretion from it was forced into the loose cellular tissue of the abdominal wall, rendering the parietes of the abdomen so thick and brawny, and so vascular, that though, notwithstanding extensive adhesions, there was little difficulty in removing the tumour, the time occupied in arresting the bleeding, from numerous points in the wall, was so great, that I cannot help thinking this tended very much to exhaust still more her little strength, and to lead to the fatal result. As it was, judging from the post-mortem appearances, she was very nearly getting well. These cases have been already reported at length in the Edinburgh Medical Journal. Multilocular Ovarian Tumour, weighing upwards of one hundred and twenty pounds. Ovariotomy—Recovery. In the beginning of March last, I was requested by Dr Craig of Batho, and Dr Carruthers of Cramond, to visit a patient of theirs —a Mrs H.—who had been the subject of a large ovarian tumour for at least three years. About five years previous to this, how¬ ever, before she came under the care of Dr Carruthers, there was a history of an acute pelvic attack, and it is more than probable that the disease took its origin at that date. She married in 1858, and in the course of her first pregnancy she had repeated convulsions, unaccompanied, however, by albuminuria, and she was generally looked upon by her friends as a delicate, nervous woman, who used to faint when she got a tooth pulled. She recovered well from her confinement, and did not require any attendance till July 1861, when Dr Carruthers, on being hurridly sent for, found she had given birth to a seven months7 child, and it was at this visit that he detected the ovarian disease. In the course of three weeks the dis¬ tention became so great, and the dyspnoea so urgent, that it was necessary to relieve her by tapping, and nearly five gallons of fluid were removed. For some time after this she went about her usual domestic duties, apparently in the best of health. The cyst soon refilled, but, notwithstanding the great dimensions which the tumour was attaining, her general health continued good: she took her food well, lived quietly, and enjoyed life, until eighteen months after the first tapping, when a second was required. Upwards of fifty pounds of thick fluid were again withdrawn ; but the size of the abdomen was little diminished by this operation, and secondary cysts were now felt in all directions. The tumour began at once to refill, she lost flesh, and her health rapidly gave way. She was a middle-sized, well-formed, fair-complexioned woman, twenty-seven years of age. She was delicate and anaemic-looking, and was very much emaciated, especially about the shoulders and
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