Intestinal obstruction : its varieties with their pathology, diagnosis, and treatment / by Frederick Treves.

  • Treves, Frederick, 1853-1923.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Intestinal obstruction : its varieties with their pathology, diagnosis, and treatment / by Frederick Treves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    exudation, become adherent if they be brought into contact with one another. The adhesion may be over a very extensive sur- face, or may involve only a few isolated points. As the inflammation subsides there is no doubt that a good deal of this exudation is in time absorbed. Such as remains becomes organised into fibrous tissue, and so are produced adhesions, bands, perito- neal false ligaments, and the like. Some of these adhesions may be extremely loose and delicate, while others are composed of a more callous material. It would appear that many of the more flimsy of these uniting structures in time disap- pear, even after they have become organised into definite connective tissue. It is much to be regretted that so little is known of the circumstances that favour the absorption of adhesions after peritonitis, and so an important element in the prognosis of that affection is lackino;. One circumstance that has distinct influence in this direction is certainly the movement of the adhering pai-ts. As an illustration of this might be taken adhesions that involve the small intestine, and that are connected with that bowel either by both of their points of attachment or by one. During the progress of peritonitis the intes- tines are relatively still. They are, moreover, more or less distended from some paralysis of their walls. As a result of this distension coils of bowel may be brought together that were hitherto far apart, or a certain loop may be placed in association with a com- paratively distant point on the parietes. When the inflammation has subsided the parts return, as far as possiljle, to the status quo ante, peristaltic move- ments spread through the intestine, coils that were close together tend, as a result of those movements, to become separated, and adhesions that attach the