Women : their diseases and their treatment / by John King.

  • King, John, 1813-1893.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Women : their diseases and their treatment / by John King. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    COHESION OF THE LABIA. The labia are sometimes met with more or less perfectly united, and which condition may be congenital, or it may be the result of inflammations, or injuries to the part. As this cohesion of the labia may prevent the evacuation of the blad- der, and thus occasion the death of the child or individual, and as it also interferes with sexual'congress, as well as partu- rition when the union takes place after conception, an opera- tion is usually necessary. Pregnancy has occurred in cases where the union was incomplete, and in which delivery could not be effected until after an operation. When the union of the labia prevents the evacuation of the bladder, as with newly born infants, the operation must be performed as soon as possible after birth, lest the child die. It is also proper to operate when the lower portions of the labia adhere, causing the urine to flow into the vagina, and occasion- ing fistula, ulceration, &c; or, when there is a retention of more or less of the menstrual discharge. When the urine and menses escape freely, the health does not become affected, and the operation will not be called for until the period of puberty, either before or after marriage. The operation consists in making a longitudinal incision along the middle of the seam formed by the union of the labia in the median line; the instrument used is a bistoury, which must be guided upon a grooved director. In some instances, a probe-pointed scissors may be employed. After the opera- tion, the surfaces must be prevented from reuniting by touch- ing them with nitrate of silver, and applying simple cerate on lint or on a compress. In those cases where the vagina and uterus have become very much distended by an accumulation of the menstrual fluid, it will be better to make a small orifice at first, that the distended organs may not be injured by too sudden a removal of their contained fluids; after which, the labia may be completely separated. When cohesion of the labia occurs in children as a result of irritation or inflammation of their mucous tissues, Prof. Meio-s states that even up to the tenth year, the mucous membranes have not combined with each other, but are only attached by a sort of interlocking villi; he recommends the stretching of