The Bradshaw lecture on colotomy, lumbar and iliac : with special reference to the choice of operation / by Thomas Bryant.

  • Bryant, Thomas, 1828-1914.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bradshaw lecture on colotomy, lumbar and iliac : with special reference to the choice of operation / by Thomas Bryant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/60 (page 10)
    COLOTOMY. tion is undertaken, witli respect to the changes in the bowel involved in either the obstruction or strangulation, is a matter of primary import- ance. In herniotomy this truth is fully recognised, in colotomy it should be. The earlier either operation is performed the better will be the patient's chances; the longer it is postponed the greater will be the risks of serious incurable or- ganic changes taking place in the intestine and consequently the greater the risk to Hfe. In the operation now under our immediate notice can it be said that these truths have had due weight, for has it not been too much the custom—indeed, is it not too much so now for a large part of the pro- fession, and particularly of its medical side—to look upon colotomy as a measure which should only be undertaken when all medical and other surgical means have been proved to be useless, and when an agonising death within a few hours stares the patient fully in the face unless relief be speedily afforded? Under such circum- stances, can there, then, beany wonder that the statistics of both the extra- and intra-peritoneal forms of operation appear at first sight to be so ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^