On excision of the entire uterus for cancer, with notes of a successful operation : being an abstract of two lectures delivered at the Cancer Hospital, on March 5th and 12th, 1886 / by Chas. E. Jennings.

  • Jennings, Charles Egerton.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On excision of the entire uterus for cancer, with notes of a successful operation : being an abstract of two lectures delivered at the Cancer Hospital, on March 5th and 12th, 1886 / by Chas. E. Jennings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    abdominal extirpation 38 recovered and 99 died, being a mortality of 72 per cent.; but of 276 cases of vaginal extirpation 197 recovered and 79 died, being a death-rate of 28*6 per cent. The former group of operations were divided among seventy-one and the latter among sixty- nine surgeons, and therefore it seems right to conclude that, except under some special circum- stances, the vaginal should be preferred to the abdominal method of uterine excision. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that many of the operations in the two categories were per- formed by the same operators. For example: Martin performed 6 hysterectomies by the abdo- minal method, and all the patients died; he operated 60 times by the vaginal method, with 47 recoveries and 13 deaths. Of 8 abdominal extirpations of the uterus by Billroth, 3 recovered and 6 died; of 12 patients operated upon by the same surgeon by the vaginal method, 8 recovered and 4 died. Of 8 abdominal operations by Schroeder there were 3 recoveries and 5 deaths; whilst of 27 vaginal extirpations there were 19 recoveries and 8 deaths. Guided by these statis- tics, I elected to excise the uterus per vaginam in the following case, where the removal of the entire organ was the only means by which life could possibly be prolonged beyond a very limited period. On Sept. 1st, 1885, Mrs. R , aged thirty- five, who had been twice married, attended at the Cancer Hospital, complaining of an offensive, sanguineous vaginal discharge, associated with