The treatment of disease by electric currents : a hand-book of plain instructions for the general practitioner / by S.H. Monell.

  • Monell, S. H. (Samuel Howard), -1918.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of disease by electric currents : a hand-book of plain instructions for the general practitioner / by S.H. Monell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    547/1128 (page 541)
    While not expected to achieve a radical cure we possess in a combination of the above methods (supplemented by static electricity during later convalescence) the means of rescuing some of the most hopeless cases and benefiting almost every case which does not present fatal complications before treat- ment is begun. If for any reason, in a rare case, an electrode can be em- ployed in neither the uterus nor the vagina, it is still possible to employ an ordinary rectal electrode within the rectum and against the tumor while the positive large electrode is placed Fig. 221. Rectal electrode, bare metal. upon the abdomen. Always connect the rectal electrode with the negative pole if it is so employed. Owing to the large surface of this electrode the tissues will tolerate quite a large current without causing a burn, but care must be used to avoid injuring the surface of the mucous membrane while attempting to get a strong current through the tumor. These methods are, of course, inferior substitutes for the classical intra-uterine application, but they are better than passive inaction, and contain potential possibilities of immense value to the patient. Typical Varieties for Electrical Treatment.—The ordinary interstitial fibroid (including the intramural varieties also) con- stitutes probably 70 per cent, of the cases seen in practice, and although many approach a crisis which necessitates a surgical operation yet all of them that are uncomplicated with sup- purating, cystic or grave lesions pass through a long career during which they are amenable to conservative treatment and form the classical field of action for the methods of Apostoli. Various as they are in shape, size and symptoms, the intra- uterine method deals with them all upon the one principle that uterine tolerance is the key alike to contra-indications and