The treatment of cancer of the uterus / by W.H. Baker.

  • Baker, William H. (William Henry), 1845-1914.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of cancer of the uterus / by W.H. Baker. 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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    as the disease could not be wholly removed. Yet, in one of them, by repeating the operation three times at intervals of some months, the patient lived three years and five months, and was kept free from many of the sufferings which make life so intolerable with this malady. Of the remaining nine, six lived, eighteen, ten, nine, eight, seven, and seven mouths, respectively. Two are still living, after periods of twelve and eight months, and the other one was discharged from the Free Hospital for Women four months after the operation, and I have since been unable to learn her condition. Of these ten cases, six were operated on once; two, twice; one, three times; and one, four times. Five of the ten were cases of cancer of the body of the uterus, being the only ones in the whole forty-seven where it was not almost certain that the tlisease began in the cervix uteri; in these five cases, however, the cervix was not affected, except in one instance, and that late in the progress of the disease. In three of the five, when first seen, the body alone was affected; there being no evidence whatever of disease in other parts. It is to be regretted that in these three cases gastrotoniy was not performed, with re- moval of the body of the uterus, making a pedicle of the neck, after Fean’s method for removal of the uterus for fibroids. It might have given the patients a better chance. In these cases of cancer of the body of the uterus, the operation done was removal of as much of the disease as was possible by the curette alone, or by tlie curette followed by a thorough application of pure nitric acid to tlie wliole interior. We have thus accounted for twenty-two of the forty-seven cases, twelve having been operated on with the hope of cure, and ten for the relief of some distressing symptom. Of the remaining twenty-five, many refused any surgical interference, although, on account of the foul discharge from sloughing tissue or of hemorrhages, there was every reason to think their condi- tion could be made more comfortable. In some cases, there was no discharge of any kind, pain being the prominent symp- tom. As this could, in’a measure, be controlled by opium, the necessity of an operation was not urged, boine were so ad- vanced in years, being over seventy, that any operation was thought inadvisable. In no single instance in the whole number of cases, wdiere there w'^as any hope of removing the entire dis-