Diseases of the Fallopian tubes / by Thomas Savage.

  • Savage, Thomas, 1839-1906.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the Fallopian tubes / by Thomas Savage. 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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    Case II.—In one of my first operations of this kind I found that the anterior wall of the sac, on the right side, was composed, at one spot, of only a single layer of membrane, thin enough to be almost transparent, and which must have given way on the slightest pressure ; such, for instance, as romping with a little child on the lap, etc. etc. Case III.—In a patient recently operated on, the left distension gave vent to a quantity of stinking pus immediately on my touching it with my fingers, using scarcely any pressure at all. Here, a very little external pressure, even examination by double palpation, might have caused a rupture. In reference to the diagnosis of an enlarged and distended tube, this must be frequently to some extent presumptive, founded upon the clinical history and the physical signs. There will be found a tumour of not very considerable size in the position of the Fallopian tube on one or both sides of the uterus, or, if larger, it may be felt almost wholly in Douglas’s space. A small ovarian cyst, a phlegmon in the broad ligament, or a small hematocele, are the affections which would most generally be taken for it; but I have been able in a certain number of cases to say beforehand that the tumour felt was most likely a distended tube, in which the result proved that I was correct. In the acute forms, the parts around the uterus may be felt to be boggy, with more or less of fixation of that organ. In the more chronic forms, the uterus may be quite free and mobile, and the tube felt, more or less tender, as a small tumour, floating about apparently quite freely. If the tumour is larger, say the size of a small orange or more, and is to some extent fixed by adhesions, the result of previous inflammatory attacks, the uterus is less free, and may be pushed to one or other