Ovarian tumors and their treatment : excepting ovariotomy / by E.R. Peaslee.

  • Peaslee, E. R. (Edmund Randolph), 1814-1878.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ovarian tumors and their treatment : excepting ovariotomy / by E.R. Peaslee. 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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    1. Fill the bougie with warm water by placing it horizontally in a vessel containing the latter; then placing the index ringer of the left hand over its open end, pass it through the canula into the sac. 2. Depress the outer end of the bougie to a lower level than that of its extremity within the sac; take the syringe, filled by an assistant with the iodine solution, in the right hand, and adapt it to the tube the instant the left index finger is removed for that purpose. Thus a few drops of water are allowed to escape from the tube, but no air passes in the opposite direction. 3. The solution is next forced through the tube from the syringe, the tube being kept in the same position, or elevated, as the opera- tor pleases. On detaching the syringe, however, to refill it, the tube should be in the same position as before indicated, and the left index finger reapplied as before, until the syringe is again inserted into the bongie. This method of preventing the access of air may have occurred to others as well as myself; but as I have never seen it suggested, I take the liberty of speaking particularly of it. I have also applied it in cases of paracentesis thoracis. What symptoms are expected to follow the injection. It was predicted that the most fearful effects would ensue from the injection of iodine as f have described. Except, however, the class of inflamed ovarian cysts into which the injection should not be made at all, the dangers of the operation have, as I have shown, been greatly exaggerated. The immediate effects of the operation are also, usually, not very startling, unless a large amount of fluid be left in the sac. Since all the fluid left is to be eventually absorbed, we should expect severer symptoms, as I have already shown, from a larger quantity, though this principle seems to have been overlooked by writers on this subject. The rapidity of absorption is sometimes astonishing, since the taste of iodine may be perceived in a few minutes by the patient, and in half an hour the iodine may be discovered in the urine, the sweat, the saliva, the tears—in short, I. B. Brown remarks, in every secretion of the body (p. 112). In his own cases also (5 or 6 oz. of the solution having been left in the sac), great prostration and vomiting ensued, which was removed in 72 hours or more, by the use of stimulants. I have myself seen no such symptoms, though in all cases the pulse rose within three or four hours to 110 or 120, with high febrile reaction, which, however, disappeared entirely within 48 hours. As a general rule, no pain whatever is produced by the injec- tion Boinet states that the iodine solution produces no pain while in an ovarian sac, but always, if it comes into contact with the peritoneum.* And I should regard severe pain or sudden shock,