Observations on occlusion of the vagina and uterus, with its means of prevention, and the operation necessary for its removal / by Evory Kennedy.

Date:
[1839?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on occlusion of the vagina and uterus, with its means of prevention, and the operation necessary for its removal / by Evory Kennedy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    12/24 (page 96)
    ceptible. The mercury was administered here, as shall be seen in others, as a precaution against peritoneal inflammation, an occurrence so much to be dreaded in these cases; and which, when it sets in, there is scarcely time to combat by produ- cing mercurialization; therefore in these operations, as well as in operations in labour, when I have reason to anticipate the occurrence of peritonitis, I generally adopt the precaution of administering small and repeated doses of mercury, before the symptoms I dread shew themselves ; a practice to which, parti- cularly when a peritoneal tendency has been prevalent, and operations have been necessary, I feel convinced I owe the safety of many valuable lives. In some of these cases after ope- ration there is an obstinate disposition to recontract, requiring our protracted and assiduous care to prevent this. The case of Bridget Fitzsimmons was one of this nature. Bridget Fitzsimmons, aet. 28, married four years, delivered of her first child, a boy, by instruments, after a labour of five days, subsequently she suffered much from vaginal pain and ten- derness, and was confined for two months; did not notice closing of vagina till about three months ago, when her husband directed her attention to to it; never menstruated since, but has suffered from head symptoms; vagina completely closed, excepting a small canal anteriorly admitting a small quill. On the 28th May, the vagina was opened, as above described, and the os uteri punctured. She was then put on the use of ca- lomel till all danger of peritonitis had passed away. A candle was thenceforth constantly employed to'dilate the vagina; an'd a very remarkable feature in the case was, the rapidity with which the canal closed when she allowed it to slip out, or when a fresh one was not introduced before the former had melted down. From these causes the vagina frequently diminished so much in size, in thirty-six or forty-eight hours, as instead of admitting a mould six, to require even a dipt to be paired, before it could be passed. When the vagina was so far dilated, as to receive