EDITOR’S PREFACE

Great as have been the advances made in Surgery during the last fifteen years, there is no direction in which they have been more noticeable than in the elaboration of those comparatively small but important details of operative technique which do so much to ensure a low mortality and a successful result.

These improvements have been developed simultaneously throughout the whole of the vast field covered by modern Surgery, and it has become increasingly difficult for any single writer to deal with such an important subject as Operative Surgery in an authoritative and efficient manner. The scope of the subject is so wide that it is difficult to ensure that the work when published shall be thoroughly up to date, while a second and even greater difficulty is for any one, however great his ability and experience, to deal equally exhaustively and authoritatively with all of the many branches of which he would have to treat.

To avoid both of these difficulties and thus to make sure that the work shall reflect faithfully the present position of British Operative Surgery, the plan has been adopted of securing the co-operation of a number of prominent British Surgeons. Each writer deals with a branch of the subject in which he has had special experience, and upon which, therefore, he is entitled to speak with authority.

Besides the two important points just referred to, a third equally important one has been kept in view throughout. Particular care has been taken to make the work of as much practical utility to the reader as possible. Not only are the various operations described in the fullest detail and with special reference to the difficulties and dangers and the best methods of overcoming and avoiding them, but the indications for the individual operations are described at length, and the after-treatment and results receive adequate notice.

It is therefore hoped that the work will be useful alike to those who are about to operate for the first time, and to those surgeons of experience who desire to keep themselves informed as to the progress that has been made in the various branches of Operative Surgery.

The division of the work into a number of sections each written by a different author, necessarily involves some overlapping of subjects and some diversity of opinion upon points of technique. Efforts have been made to prevent overlapping of subjects as far as possible by care in their distribution and by conference between the authors concerned, but no attempt has been made to harmonize conflicting views. Each author supports his individual opinions by the weight of his authority, and any discrepancies may be taken to represent the absence of unanimity on various minor points that is well known to exist among surgeons of all countries.

The task of editing a work contributed to by so many writers might well appear to be an onerous one, but, owing to the promptitude, courtesy, and forbearance of all concerned, it has been a source of great pleasure, and the Editor’s most cordial thanks are tendered to all those who have devoted so much time and trouble to the work.

PREFACE TO VOLUME IV

Every effort has been made to keep this volume strictly within the definition of a work upon Operative Surgery—a somewhat difficult task in the case of certain of the special subjects with which it deals. In some cases methods of examination or manipulation have been described that are not strictly operative in nature, but their inclusion has been justified upon the ground that many of them are essential in operations upon the regions concerned, and all require special manipulative skill and dexterity.

The Index to this volume has been arranged in five parts, one part for each Section comprised in it. In this way it has been possible to economize space and, it is hoped, to render the task of reference easier.

In the Section on Vaginal Gynæcological Operations, instrument blocks have been kindly supplied by Messrs. Montague, Down Bros., and Griffin. The remaining illustrations are from original sketches by the author.

In the Section on Ophthalmic Operations, Messrs. Weiss have kindly supplied the instrument blocks. The remainder of the illustrations are original. Mr. Mayou desires to thank Mr. W. H. McMullen for valuable help in reading the proof sheets.

In the Section on Operations upon the Ear, all the illustrations, with the exception of the instrument blocks kindly supplied by Messrs. Mayer and Meltzer and a few illustrations from Tod’s Manual of Diseases of the Ear, are original.

In the Section on Operations upon the Nose, the instrument blocks have been supplied by Messrs. Mayer and Meltzer, who have also furnished them in the Section on Operations upon the Throat. Mr. F. A. Rose has kindly read the proof sheets of the latter Section, for which Mr. Harmer desires to thank him.

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS VOLUME

CONTENTS

SECTION I

OPERATIONS UPON THE FEMALE GENITAL ORGANS

PART I

ABDOMINAL GYNÆCOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

By JOHN BLAND-SUTTON, F.R.C.S. (Eng.)

Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital and Senior Surgeon to the Chelsea Hospital for Women, London.

CHAPTER I

PAGES

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

PART II

VAGINAL GYNÆCOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

By JOHN PHILLIPS, M.A., M.D. (Cantab.), F.R.C.P.

Professor of Obstetric Medicine, King’s College, London; Obstetric Physician and Gynæcologist to King’s College Hospital.

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

SECTION II

OPHTHALMIC OPERATIONS

By M. S. MAYOU, F.R.C.S. (Eng.)

Assistant Surgeon to the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital; Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Children’s Hospital, Paddington Green.

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

SECTION III

OPERATIONS UPON THE EAR

By HUNTER F. TOD, M.A., M.D. (Cantab.), F.R.C.S. (Eng.)

Aural Surgeon to the London Hospital.

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

SECTION IV

OPERATIONS UPON THE LARYNX AND TRACHEA

By W. DOUGLAS HARMER, M.C. (Cantab.), F.R.C.S. (Eng.)

Surgeon to the Throat and Nose Department, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

SECTION V

OPERATIONS UPON THE NOSE AND ITS ACCESSORY CAVITIES

By StCLAIR THOMSON, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Lond.), F.R.C.S. (Eng.)

Professor of Laryngology and Physician for Diseases of the Throat, King’s College Hospital, London.

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I

CŒLIOTOMY

When the abdomen is opened for the purpose of removing a diseased viscus, the operation receives a specific name, such as nephrectomy, gastrectomy, splenectomy, and so forth. In many instances the abdomen is occupied by a tumour which defies the skill of the surgeon to localize to any particular organ until it is exposed to view through an incision; it is usual to apply the term cœliotomy to an operation of this kind, and it merely implies that the belly is opened by a cut. Cœliotomy is a useful expression, because many abnormal conditions arise in the abdomen which require treatment through an incision in its walls which do not lend themselves to an expressive term, for example, the removal of omental cysts, the evacuation of pus, blood, or the removal of foreign bodies, &c. It is true that a cœliotomy performed on an uncertain diagnosis may become a colectomy, ovariotomy, hysterectomy, &c., and the preliminary step to the performance of the operations to be described in this section is an abdominal incision, or cœliotomy. For whatever purpose a cœliotomy is required in the treatment of diseases of the female pelvic organs, the preparation of the patient and the initial steps are alike; it will therefore be convenient to describe the manner of carrying them out.

The preparation of the patient. It rarely happens that an operation is so urgent as to leave little time for a thorough preparation of the patient. It is desirable that the preliminaries should occupy two days at least. During this time the patient is kept in bed and the bowels are freely evacuated, either by calomel at night, with a saline draught in the morning, or by an ounce of castor oil.

On the morning of the operation the large bowel is thoroughly emptied by a soap and water enema, care being taken to use soft soap, to avoid producing a pimply eruption known as the ‘enema rash’.

It is well known that injuries to the abdominal organs, whether by accident or in the course of a surgical operation, are liable to be followed by septic parotitis. Recent writers attribute this complication to microbic infection of the ducts of the salivary glands (see p. 99); its occurrence may be avoided by including careful cleaning of the teeth among the preliminaries advisable for an abdominal operation. It is such a simple and comfortable ordinance that there is no reason for not following it.

The preparation of the skin needs to be very thoroughly carried out. After a warm bath the hair is shaved from the abdomen, pubes and vulva, and the skin is well washed with warm soapy water and swathed in gauze compresses wrung out of a solution of perchloride of mercury, 1 in 5,000. These compresses remain for twelve hours. The abdomen is again washed, and a second compress is applied which remains on until the operation.

Occasionally patients object to have the abdomen and pubes shaved. In such cases the hair can be easily removed by a depilatory. I have found a powder prepared according to the following formula useful:—

Sodium monosulphide, 1 part; calcium oxide, 1 part; starch, 2 parts; sufficient water is added to make a stiff paste, which is spread over the parts. After five minutes it is washed off by means of a dab of cotton-wool and the skin freely washed with warm water. This preparation is only efficacious when freshly prepared.

The washing and application of compresses require care on the part of the nurse, for some patients have skin so tender that it is easily blistered, and a crop of small pustules is a source of inconvenience, and leads to stitch-abscesses. In certain cases over-preparation may be worse than no preparation.

When patients are advanced in years it is extremely necessary to protect them from being chilled by undue exposure. It is well to clothe their lower limbs in warm flannel garments or drawers made out of Gamgee tissue. No open doors or windows should be permitted; though in summer this is comfortable to the surgeon it may be disastrous to the patient. In winter the temperature of an operating-room should not be below 65°F. In this way ether pneumonia is best avoided.

In operations, such as oöphorectomy, ovariotomy and hysterectomy, it is the rule not to operate during menstruation; experience has taught me that operations performed during this period are not followed by evil or untoward consequences, and for many years I have disregarded it.

Immediately before the patient is placed on the table the bladder should be emptied naturally, or by means of a sterilized glass catheter.

In all pelvic operations it is a great advantage to employ nurses who have had a special training in ‘abdominal nursing’.

Basins and dishes. All receptacles such as basins, pots, instrument dishes and the like should be boiled. Mere rinsing or washing in warm water is insufficient.

Instruments. These should be constructed of metal throughout, as this enables them to be thoroughly sterilized by boiling. Needles and scalpels may be enclosed in perforated metal boxes. Forceps and the handles of scalpels are nickelled, and this keeps them bright. The following instruments are necessary: Scalpel, twelve hæmostatic forceps, dissecting forceps, two fenestrated forceps which are also useful as sponge-holders, a volsella, six curved needles of various sizes, two straight needles, silks of various thickness, and six dabs.

The surgeon should make a practice of employing a definite number of instruments and dabs for all occasions, as it will save him much anxiety in counting them at the end of the operation.

During the operation the instruments and silks are immersed straight from the sterilizer in warm sterilized water.

Suture and ligature material. The most useful material at present employed in pelvic surgery is silk. This material has a wide range of usefulness, as it is employed to secure pedicles, for the ligature of blood-vessels, and for sutures; it can be obtained of any thickness, and is easily sterilized by boiling without impairing its strength. In abdominal surgery there are four useful sizes, No. 1, 2, 4, and 6, of the plaited variety of silk. The thread is wound on a glass spool and boiled for one hour immediately before use. If any silk is left over from the operation it may be reboiled once or twice without impairing its strength. (The fate of silk ligatures is discussed on p. 117.) Many surgeons employ catgut and hold it in high esteem. I regard it as an unsatisfactory and dangerous material; moreover it cannot be boiled, which is the simplest and safest method of making ligatures sterile.

Dabs. Nothing is so convenient for removing blood from a wound as sponges; their absorbent property and softness are excellent, but they are difficult to sterilize; therefore they are highly dangerous, and on this account should be banished from surgery. An excellent substitute is absorbent cotton-wool enclosed in gauze (Gamgee tissue). This material can be cut to any size or folded into any shape, and is easily sterilized by heat, or by boiling, without damage to its absorbent properties.

For a cœliotomy six dabs are prepared of various sizes, according to the nature of the case. These are boiled for one hour and then immersed in sterilized warm water and washed from time to time in the course of the operation.

I always employ six dabs, then there is no difficulty at the end of the operation concerning their number. The dabs at the completion of the operation are destroyed.

Many serious consequences have arisen from dabs and instruments accidentally left in the peritoneal cavity after pelvic operations. This subject is considered on p. 105.

The operator should remember that his responsibility in this matter is determined by a decision in a Court of Law.

The employment of dry gauze dabs in abdominal operations is objectionable because it is harsh and irritating to the peritoneum and leads to the formation of adhesions.

Gloves. Increasing experience proves that gloves are most valuable in securing freedom from sepsis. It is a very important matter that the surgeon, the assistant, and the nurses who help at the operation should wear rubber gloves boiled immediately before the operation for ten minutes.

The wearing of gloves diminishes the mortality of the operation, and minimizes its unpleasant and often dangerous sequelæ, such as suppuration around sutures, septic emboli, tympanites, and the like. Care must be taken to impress upon all who take part in an operation that it is as essential to thoroughly wash and disinfect the hands before inserting them in gloves as when no gloves are worn. It is also necessary to warn nurses that the smallest hole in a glove renders it useless.

To the operator thorough disinfection of the hands is of the highest importance, for he may puncture or tear the gloves during the operation; or a difficulty may arise in the course of it which will render it advantageous for him to remove one or both gloves to overcome it. It is with me a rule that if in the course of an operation it is necessary to remove the gloves, I resume them for the final stages, and particularly for the insertion of the sutures. The use of rubber gloves marks a most important advance in operative surgery.

The operating table. In many cases of cœliotomy a table such as is employed for the ordinary operations of surgery answers very well, but for hysterectomy, oöphorectomy, and similar procedures it is a great convenience to use a table on which the patient can be placed in the Trendelenburg position, that is, with the pelvis raised, and the head and shoulders lowered: this allows the intestines to fall towards the diaphragm and leave the pelvis unencumbered. There are many varieties of tables employed for this purpose. As these tables are made of metal, it is necessary before the table is tilted to fix the patient’s arms parallel with her trunk, otherwise they fall across the edge of the table, and in some instances a troublesome paralysis of the muscles of the upper limb has been the consequence.

It is worth while pointing out that most of the examples have happened in the course of long operations (see Post-anæsthetic paralysis, p. 95).

Anæsthesia. The majority of surgeons employ a general anæsthetic, such as ether, chloroform, or a mixture of chloroform and ether, in pelvic operations. The most usual practice in London is to render the patient unconscious with nitrous oxide gas and maintain the anæsthesia with ether. It is a method which has given me the greatest satisfaction. As a rule, it is wise whenever possible to employ an experienced anæsthetist and trust to his judgment in regard to the selection of the anæsthetic.

In exceptional cases pelvic operations such as ovariotomy and hysteropexy have been successfully performed with the aid of intradural injections of a solution of eucaine, novocaine, or stovaine.

The incision. The operation-area is isolated by sterilized towels and the pelvis well tilted and so arranged as to face a good light. When the patient is completely unconscious, the operator (standing usually on the right side with the assistant opposite him) freely incises the wall of the abdomen in the middle line between the umbilicus and the pubes (this incision is conveniently termed the median subumbilical incision; its length varies with the necessities of the case, but is usually 7 to 10 centimetres). The first cut generally exposes the aponeurotic sheath of the rectus; any vessels that bleed freely require seizing with hæmostatic forceps. The linea alba is then divided, but as it is very narrow in this situation, the sheath of the right or left rectus muscle is usually opened. Keeping in the middle line, the posterior layer of the sheath is divided and the subperitoneal fat (which sometimes resembles omentum) is reached; in thin subjects this is so small in amount that it is scarcely recognizable, and the peritoneum is at once exposed, and, as a rule, the urachus comes into view. In order to incise the peritoneum without damaging the tumour, cyst, or intestine, a fold of the membrane is picked up with forceps and cautiously pricked with the point of a scalpel; air rushes in, destroys the vacuum, and generally produces a space between the cyst (or intestines) and the belly-wall; the surgeon then introduces his finger, and divides the peritoneum to an extent equal to the incision in the skin.

It is important to remember that the bladder is sometimes pushed upward by tumours, and lies in the subperitoneal tissue above the pubes; it is then liable to be cut.

On entering the peritoneal cavity, the surgeon introduces his hand, and proceeds to ascertain the nature of any morbid condition that he sees or feels, or he evacuates any free fluid, blood, or pus which may be present. Occasionally he finds that attempts to remove a tumour would be futile or end in immediate disaster to the patient; then he desists and closes the wound, and the procedure is classed as an exploratory cœliotomy. Should a removable tumour, such as an ovarian cyst, an echinococcus colony in the omentum, or the like be found, it is removed.

Before suturing the incision, the surgeon usually spreads the omentum over the small intestine; occasionally he will be surprised to find this structure, even in well-nourished women, represented by a mere fringe of fatty tissue attached to the lower border of the transverse colon.

The recesses of the pelvis are then carefully mopped in order to remove fluid, blood, or pus; the dabs and instruments are counted, and preparations made to suture the incision.

Misplaced viscera. In addition to tumours and normal enlargement of the uterus due to pregnancy, or an overfull bladder, there are certain malformations as well as displacements of normal viscera the surgeon may encounter in the pelvis which will, in some cases, cause him a certain amount of embarrassment, such, for example, as a bifid uterus or a spleen which has elongated its pedicle, or even twisted it, and, falling so low in the abdomen as to occupy the pelvis, may even cause prolapse of the uterus. In some of these cases it drags the tail of the pancreas with it. The cæcum and the vermiform appendix often occupy the true pelvis; in middle-aged and elderly women the transverse colon sometimes forms a loop (the omega-loop), the extreme convexity of which often reaches to the pelvis. I have seen the right lobe of the liver extend into the pelvis, and come in contact with the unimpregnated uterus. It is important to remember that a kidney sometimes occupies the hollow of the sacrum; such a misplaced kidney has been removed under the impression that it was a tumour. When a kidney occupies the pelvis it lies behind the peritoneum as when it occupies its normal position in the loin. A horseshoe kidney is a fertile source of divergent opinion in diagnosis. A very large hydronephrosis simulates very closely an ovarian cyst until exposed through an abdominal incision; in such a contingency the operator performs nephrectomy; when the kidney is large enough to resemble an ovarian cyst it can easily be removed through the median incision.

A very distended stomach will reach the hypogastrium and has many times been mistaken for an ovarian cyst; such a distended stomach has received a thrust from an ovariotomy trocar and the operator has been astonished to see food issue through the opening.

Tumours of the pelvic organs are often complicated with abnormal and diseased conditions of the intestines, large and small; it is therefore necessary for any one undertaking gynæcological abdominal operations to be prepared to perform resections of the colon, enterorrhaphy, gastro-jejunostomy, and the like when necessary.

Transposition of the viscera is a rare anomaly to encounter in the course of an abdominal operation. I met with it once in 3,000 cœliotomies; the condition was recognized before operation.

Closure of the wound. There are about fifty methods known and advocated for the closure of the median subumbilical incision, and the following is a list of materials used by surgeons for this purpose: silk, silkworm-gut, catgut, linen thread, and horsehair; silver, iron, aluminium, bronze, and platinum wire, and Michel’s metal clips. The object of these various methods and materials is to obtain a firm scar.

The first requisite for securing an unyielding scar is perfect asepsis; but even the most perfectly healed abdominal scar may yield. Nature in her great operation of uniting the lateral halves of the belly-wall in a median cicatrix, the linea alba, cannot secure a non-yielding scar, it is therefore presumptuous of the surgeon to think he can always ensure it.

The method which has given me the best results is a simple one. The peritoneum, sheath of the rectus, and rectus muscle are carefully approximated by interrupted sutures of No. 4 silk carefully sterilized and inserted with the hands covered with rubber gloves. The sutures are inserted at intervals of rather less than 2 centimetres apart. Care must be taken to include the peritoneum in these sutures. The skin is then brought together by a continuous suture of No. 2 silk. When the operation has been undertaken for a septic condition, such as pelvic peritonitis, suppuration of an ovarian cyst, an acute pyosalpinx, or the like, then it is useless to introduce buried sutures for the muscular and aponeurotic layers, as they will quickly become infected. In such conditions the abdominal walls are brought together by interrupted sutures involving all the layers.

Those who are curious in regard to the various methods of closing median cœliotomy wounds should consult a brochure published in 1904 on The Closure of Laparotomy Wounds as practised in Germany and Austria, by Walter H. Swaffield. This little book contains the detailed methods and views communicated to him by more than fifty leading surgeons.

In Great Britain there is plenty of variety in the methods and material employed for the closure of the incisions in abdominal operations, but at the present time there is a marked tendency to return to the older and simpler methods. The most dangerous and unreliable suture material for the abdominal incision is catgut (see p. 96).

In studying the details of such operations as ovariotomy and hysterectomy from books, it should be remembered that it is merely the principles that can be explained. There are so many details in every operation that can only be learned from watching, or, what is far better, assisting a skilful and experienced surgeon in their performance. This is true of all forms of surgical procedure. No man can become a navigator without going to sea, however thoroughly he masters the principles of seamanship from books, so no surgeon can acquire the art of operating from merely reading descriptions of surgical operations. If a surgeon can bring to bear upon abdominal gynæcological operations, in addition to mere surgical dexterity, a competent knowledge of the pathology of the organs, he will find it of the greatest assistance. I would warn him particularly to take little heed of the sneers of those eminently practical surgeons who affect to despise pathology.

CHAPTER II

OVARIOTOMY

Ovariotomy signifies the removal through an abdominal incision of cystic and solid tumours of the ovary, and parovarian cysts.

The history of this operation is of great interest to surgeons because it was the forerunner, so to speak, of all abdominal gynæcological operations; they followed as a natural consequence on the establishment of ovariotomy, and operations on the abdominal viscera generally are to be regarded as an extension of pelvic surgery.

It is usual to state that ovariotomy was first performed by Ephraim McDowell, of Kentucky, 1809: this is of historical interest only, for it had no effect whatever in drawing attention to the feasibility of removing ovarian cysts: it was in fact a still-born operation. The pioneers of this operation were undoubtedly Baker Brown and Spencer Wells in London, Thomas Keith in Edinburgh, and Clay in Manchester. These surgeons brought the operation out of a ‘slough of despond’ and placed it on firm ground. Spencer Wells and Keith were fortunate later in their work in receiving guidance from Lord Lister’s discovery of antisepsis: this, combined with the introduction of the short ligature, firmly established the operation.

The improvement in securing the pedicle has played an important part in the development of ovariotomy. McDowell tied the pedicle, but left the ligature hanging out of the wound. Doran, who has written an excellent review of this matter, ascribes the intraperitoneal method of dealing with the pedicle to the systematic advocacy of Tyler Smith. The method has been followed by brilliant results.

Baker Brown used to sear the pedicle with a cautery, and this method was adopted with great success by Thomas Keith. The method of ligature is so simple and safe that the cautery for this purpose has been long abandoned.

The operation. The preliminary preparation of the patient and the necessary instruments are described on p. 5. The Trendelenburg position is not so necessary for the removal of large ovarian tumours as the smaller examples which are apt to be firmly adherent to the floor of the pelvis. In cases where the abdomen contains free fluid, ascitic or due to the bursting of a cyst, or pus, it is a wise precaution to conduct the early stages of the operation with the patient in the horizontal position, otherwise the tilting will cause the fluid to gravitate towards the diaphragm. As soon as the fluid has been removed the pelvis may be raised if it be likely to facilitate the operation.

In the early days of ovariotomy it was the custom to tap the cyst, or, in the case of multilocular tumours, to force the hand into the mass and break down the septa of contiguous loculi and allow the viscid material to escape. These devices were recommended because it was regarded as a method making for safety to extract the cyst through a small abdominal incision. Occasionally it is possible to extract the wall of a large single-chambered parovarian cyst, after tapping, through an incision 7 centimetres in length. When the tumour is multilocular, or malignant, or full of grease or pus, it is difficult and extremely dangerous to tap it, as the material may infect the peritoneum either with septic matter or with malignant particles, and end disastrously.

Cases have been reported in which, after traumatic rupture, or tapping, of a dermoid, the epithelial contents escaped into the belly. Subsequently the peritoneum was found dotted over with minute nodules furnished with tufts of hair growing among the visceral adhesions. When a woman with an ovarian cyst contracts typhoid fever, the cyst may become filled with pus which contains the bacillus typhosus. Such a case occurred in my practice in 1907.

For many years I have abandoned the use of clumsy trocars of all kinds and remove the tumour entire, although it may require an incision from the ensiform cartilage to the pubes. These large incisions heal quickly, and are no more prone to hernia than the short incisions. This is the only way of ensuring the safety of the peritoneum from being contaminated by the harmful, dirty, and often malignant contents of the cysts. In dealing with burst cysts a free incision enables the surgeon to thoroughly and gently clean the peritoneal cavity.

The abdominal cavity is opened by a median subumbilical incision (see p. 7). Occasionally a difficulty may be encountered on reaching the peritoneum, for, if the cyst has been infected, the peritoneum and cyst wall may be so intimately adherent that they cannot be separated. In these circumstances it is a wise plan to extend the incision upwards and enter the abdominal cavity above the tumour. It is also to be borne in mind that when the tumour adheres to the abdominal wall it is extremely probable that a coil of intestine may be adherent also. When a tumour is impacted in the pelvis it may push the bladder high in the abdomen; in such an event this viscus is apt to be opened in making the incision. If the surgeon has any doubt concerning the position of the bladder, he should instruct an assistant to introduce a sound into it through the urethra.

In a typical case, when the peritoneum is opened the surgeon at once recognizes the bluish-grey glistening surface of the ovarian cyst, and gently sweeps his hand over it in order to ascertain its relations and to learn whether the cyst wall be free from adhesions. It is of the utmost importance to be satisfied as to the nature of the tumour, especially when the operator follows the unsatisfactory practice of tapping, for if he plunge a trocar into a uterine tumour, or into a pregnant uterus, he will involve himself in anxious difficulty. Decomposing fluid, tenacious mucus, or blood-stained fluid may obscure the parts, and should be sponged away: they indicate a ruptured cyst, a malignant tumour, or a twisted pedicle. Much free blood may be due to the bursting, or abortion, of a gravid tube. When the surgeon has satisfied himself that the cyst or tumour is free to be removed he lifts it out of the abdominal cavity, and if in this process the wall be so thin that it is likely to burst, or actually leaks, the weak spot may be freely incised with a knife over a convenient receptacle.

Adhesions. Although the surgeon may have had reasons to suspect the presence of adhesions, frequently he finds none, and on other occasions when he least expects them there are many. The most frequent adhesions are omental, and fortunately they are the least important: they should be detached and tied with thin silk. Adherent epiploic appendages require the same treatment. Intestinal adhesions require care and patience. When the intestines are adherent by strands and bands, these may be cautiously snipped with scissors; when the adhesions are sessile and soft the gut may be gently detached by means of a moist dab; but if very firm it may be necessary to dissect off a piece of cyst wall and leave it on the gut. The vermiform appendix requires especial care, for it may be mistaken for an adhesion and divided. When intestines are accidentally opened in the course of an ovariotomy they require the most careful attention. Wounds in the colon may be safely sutured. Holes in adherent small intestine may sometimes be sutured, but if the gut has been extensively involved it may be necessary, and often judicious, to resect a few centimetres and join the cut ends by a circular enterorrhaphy.

Adhesions to the parietal peritoneum are as a rule easily detached with the finger. The most serious adhesions are those which occur in the depths of the pelvis, involving the uterus, bladder, or rectum, and the separation of these may involve such accidents as wounds opening the rectum or bladder, and injury to the ureters and iliac veins. The treatment of such misfortunes will be considered later.

The pedicle. When the tumour is withdrawn from the belly the pedicle is easily recognized: the Fallopian tube serves as an excellent guide to it. The pedicle consists of the Fallopian tube and adjacent parts of the mesometrium containing the ovarian artery, pampiniform plexus of veins, lymphatics, nerves, and the ovarian ligament. When the constituents of the pedicle are unobscured by adhesions, the round ligament of the uterus is easily seen and need not be included in the ligature.

In transfixing the pedicle the aim should be to pierce the mesometrium at a spot where there are no large veins, and tie the structures in two bundles, so that the inner contains the Fallopian tube, a fold of the mesometrium, and occasionally the round ligament of the uterus; whilst the outer consists of the ovarian ligament, veins, the ovarian artery, and a larger fold of peritoneum than the inner half.

Pedicles differ greatly; they may be long and thin, or short and broad. Long thin pedicles are easily managed. The assistant gently supports the tumour, whilst the operator spreads the tissues with his thumb and forefinger, and transfixes them with the pedicle needle armed with a long piece of silk doubled on itself. The loop of silk is seized on the opposite side and the needle withdrawn. During the transfixion care must be taken not to prick the bowel with the needle. The loop of silk is cut so that two pieces of silk thread lie in the pedicle. The proper ends of the thread are now secured, and each is firmly tied in a reef-knot; for greater security the whole pedicle may be encircled by an independent ligature, taking care that it embraces the pedicle below the point of transfixion. (I use No. 4 plaited silk for transfixing the pedicle, and a piece of No. 6 silk for surrounding it.)

After the operator has gained some experience in this simple mode of tying the pedicle, he may, if he thinks it desirable, practise other methods.

After securely applying the ligature the tumour is removed by snipping through the tissues on the distal side of the ligature with scissors. Care must be taken not to cut too near the silk, or the stump will slip through the ligature; on the other hand, too much tissue should not be left behind. The stump is seized on each side by pressure forceps, and examined to see that the vessels in it are secure; it is then allowed to retreat into the abdomen. Should it begin to bleed it must be caught with forceps, drawn up, retransfixed, and tied below the original ligature.

Occasionally a pedicle will be so broad that it is unsafe to trust to this simple form of ligature. Broad pedicles will require three or more ligatures. When several ligatures are required it is important to remember that the ovarian artery lies in the outer fold of the pedicle and the uterine artery at the inner end, and it is often possible to secure these vessels separately with a thin piece of silk. The pedicle can then be secured with a series of interlocking ligatures.

When an ovarian tumour has undergone axial rotation and has tightly twisted its pedicle, the ligature should be applied to the torsioned area: a single ligature is then sufficient.

It is impossible to frame absolute rules for ligaturing the pedicle. In this, as in all departments of surgery, common sense must be exercised, and at the present day, when ovariotomy is practised so widely, no one would think of performing this operation without assisting at, or watching its actual performance by an experienced surgeon.

Having satisfied himself that the pedicle is secure, the surgeon examines the opposite ovary, and if obviously diseased it should be removed.

The operator then sponges up any blood or fluid which may have collected in the recesses of the pelvis. Whilst employed in this way he gives instructions to have the dabs and instruments counted.

When the operator limits the number of dabs to six he can easily have them displayed before him. The incision is sutured in the manner described on p. 9.

Cysts of the broad ligaments. Occasionally the surgeon on opening the abdomen finds that the cyst or tumour is situated between the layers of the broad ligament. Sessile cysts of this kind are removed by what is known as enucleation. The peritoneum overlying the cyst is cautiously torn through with forceps until the cyst wall is exposed; then by means of the forefinger the surgeon proceeds to shell the cyst out of its bed, taking care not to tear the capsule or any large vein in its wall; it is also necessary to exercise the greatest care to avoid injury to the ureter. It is not uncommon, after enucleating a cyst in this way, to find the ureter lying at the bottom of the recess. (For treatment of an injured ureter see p. 112.)

When the enucleation is completed the walls of the capsule are carefully examined for oozing vessels which require ligature. The capsule can often be closed in such a way as to bring its walls into apposition and thus obliterate its cavity; it then requires no further attention. When there is much oozing the capsule is treated on the plan known as marsupialization. The edges of the capsule are brought to the lower angle of the abdominal wound and secured with sutures, and a drain, either of gauze or a rubber tube, is introduced, and the remainder of the wound closed in the usual manner.

Enucleation is usually accompanied by more loss of blood than simple ovariotomy; this, and the prolonged manipulation, is often responsible for severe shock.

Spurious capsules. It is necessary for the surgeon to remember that an ovarian cyst, and especially an ovarian dermoid, is sometimes invested by a spurious capsule. It is now well known that slow effusions of blood, tuberculous exudations (Fig. 4), hydatid cysts, and ovarian cysts become enclosed by capsules of fibrous tissue formed by the organization of the peritoneal exudation which their presence excites. These capsules are often so firm, and so completely encyst the fluid exuded into the pelvis in cases of tubal tuberculosis, that such encapsuled collections of fluid resemble, and are often mistaken for, ovarian cysts. It is also necessary to mention that true ovarian cysts project from, but never invade the layers of the broad ligament. From time to time cases are reported in which ovarian cysts, especially dermoids, have been found between the layers of the broad ligament: such are in all probability instances in which a false capsule has formed around the cyst, and the surgeon committed an error of observation in regarding it as a layer of the broad ligament.

Ovariotomy in carcinoma of the ovary. When an operation is undertaken for the removal of solid or semi-solid tumours of the ovary, and especially when bilateral and accompanied by vomiting, it is incumbent on the surgeon to make a careful examination of the gastro-intestinal tract, for in many of these cases cancer will be found either at the pylorus, or in the cæcum, or the colon, and particularly in the sigmoid flexure. In such circumstances the ovarian masses are secondary to the cancerous focus in the gastro-intestinal tract.

Bilateral malignant tumours of the ovaries are sometimes secondary to primary cancer of the gall-bladder and the breast. Some of these secondary cancerous tumours of the ovaries form masses as big as the patient’s head.

Fig. 1. Secondary Cancer of the Ovary. An ovary converted into a solid mass of cancer secondary to a focus in the sigmoid flexure of the colon: it weighed 5 lb. Two-fifths size.

Fig. 2. Secondary Cancer of the Ovary in Section. This is a section of the ovary represented in the preceding figure. Half size.

In such conditions the ovaries and sometimes the uterus should be removed even for the purpose of making the patient comfortable. When the primary disease is in the cæcum, colon, or sigmoid flexure, and is operable, the growth should be resected and the cut ends of the bowel united by circular enterorrhaphy. In one instance, where the cancer occupied the ileo-cæcal valve, I succeeded in making a lateral anastomosis between the ileum and ascending colon, after performing bilateral ovariotomy. The woman survived the operation two years.

Incomplete ovariotomy. The surgeon may start on an operation and, after opening the abdomen, may find many adhesions, yet he feels that the removal of the tumour is possible. He sets to work and overcomes many of the difficulties, but finds at last such extensive pelvic adhesions that it is imprudent to proceed further. In such cases he evacuates the contents of the cyst and stitches the edges of the opening in the cyst to the margins of the abdominal wound, and drains the cavity. This mode of dealing with a cyst is usually termed ‘incomplete ovariotomy’.

An incomplete ovariotomy is a very different condition to an enucleation. The cavity left after enucleation closes completely, but when the wall of an ovarian cyst or adenoma is left the tumour gradually grows again, or it may suppurate so profusely that the patient slowly dies exhausted. There are few things sadder in surgery than the slow, miserable ending of an individual who has been subjected to an incomplete ovariotomy.

Anomalous ovariotomy. In a few instances, generally under an erroneous diagnosis, surgeons have removed ovarian tumours through an opening other than the classical one known as the median subumbilical incision. Under the impression that the tumour was splenic, an ovarian tumour of the right side has been successfully removed through an incision in the left linea semilunaris (R. W. Parker). An ovarian tumour, supposed to be a renal cyst, has been successfully extracted through an incision in the ilio-costal space (Le Bec). Strangest of all, a small ovarian dermoid has been removed through the rectum under the impression that it was a polypus of the bowel (Stock, Peters).

Hysterectomy after bilateral ovariotomy. After the removal of both ovaries for cysts or tumours, the uterus is a useless organ: it is fast becoming the practice under such conditions to remove it. There is much to be said in favour of this procedure, especially if the uterus be large and flabby, because it tends to fall backwards into the pelvis. In such circumstances it is better surgery to remove it than to perform hysteropexy. The risk of intestinal obstruction after bilateral ovariotomy is greater than after hysterectomy. Cases are known in which cancer has attacked the uterus years after bilateral ovariotomy and oöphorectomy (see p. 55).

Repeated ovariotomy. Very many cases are known in which women have been twice submitted to ovariotomy. Thus it is the duty of the surgeon when removing an ovarian tumour to examine carefully the opposite ovary. So many examples are known of women who have borne children after unilateral ovariotomy (twins and even triplets) that this alone is sufficient to prohibit the routine ablation of both glands.

A second ovariotomy is not attended with more risk than a first ovariotomy. The abdominal incision must be made with extra caution, because intestine may be adherent to it and runs a risk of being wounded. In some instances the cicatrix is very thin, and the surgeon cutting through it is liable to cut the intestine before being aware that the knife has entered the abdomen.

Some surgeons recommend that in a second ovariotomy the opening may with advantage be made a little to one side of the original incision.

Cases have been reported in which patients have been thrice submitted to ovariotomy: in such instances it is probable that one of the tumours was a sessile broad ligament cyst.

Pregnancy after bilateral ovariotomy. It is an interesting fact that several cases have been carefully reported in which women who have had bilateral ovariotomy have subsequently become pregnant. This event has been explained by assuming that in some of the patients a portion of at least one ovary has been left. This meets with more favour than the idea of the existence of a supernumerary ovary. The cases have been collected by Doran.

In order to afford some notion of the relative frequency of the various cysts and tumours classed as ovarian, a list of one hundred consecutive examples which I removed at the Chelsea Hospital for Women is appended:—

The case classed as a carcinoma was secondary to cancer of the pylorus; both ovaries were affected. The three classed as tubo-ovarian were probably exceedingly large examples of hydrosalpinx; one was so big that it came in contact with the liver.

I have compared this table with the experience of other surgeons, and although there is much variation in them it represents a fair average of the proportions of the different ovarian operations usually classified under the head of ovariotomy.

Ovariotomy at the extremes of life. Cysts and tumours arise in the ovary during intra-uterine, and at all periods during extra-uterine life, even in extreme old age: they also attain such dimensions in infants and old women as to demand the aid of the surgeon, and with excellent results. Many years ago I collected the recorded cases and tabulated one hundred instances in which ovariotomy had been performed in infants and girls under fifteen years of age. These tumours fall into three groups:

In the case of simple cysts, adenomata, and dermoids, the results are encouraging. It is possible that some of the cases described as sarcomata belonged to the deadly group now known as malignant teratomata.

Ovarian tumours sometimes attain large dimensions in children, and Keen reported a case in which he removed an ovarian tumour from a girl which weighed 44 kilogrammes: the girl weighed 27 kilogrammes after the operation. An ovarian cyst with a twisted pedicle has been found in a fœtus at birth (Otto von Franque).

The subjoined table shows cases in which ovarian tumours have been removed from infants under three years of age. It is often stated that Professor Chiene performed ovariotomy on an infant of three months. This is an error; it was an ovary occupying the sac of an inguinal hernia.

Ovariotomy in Infants

Ovariotomy in old age. In 1891 I was able to find twenty-two records of successful ovariotomy in women over seventy years of age. Since that date Howard A. Kelly and Mary Sherwood made a collective investigation, and succeeded in obtaining notes of one hundred cases of ovariotomy performed on women over seventy years of age: the death-rate amounted to 12%.

The subjoined table concerns itself with ovariotomy performed on women after the age of eighty years, and the results are remarkable, notwithstanding the circumstance that these women of eighty years and upwards must have been blessed with a stronger constitution than their contemporaries.

Ovariotomy in Women of Eighty Years of Age

Mortality. The death-rate after ovariotomy is hard to estimate, especially as surgeons differ widely in the classification of the cases. In the simple and uncomplicated forms of ovarian cysts and tumours the operation should be almost free from risk. Many surgeons, excluding malignant conditions, have had lists of a hundred operations with no deaths.

If all kinds of tumours are included as represented in the table on p. 17, a 5% mortality in experienced hands would be regarded as a good result. In general hospital work it is probably as high as 10%. With less experienced surgeons who do not perform many operations the death-rate will vary from 10 to 15%.

The risks and after-consequences of ovarian operations are set forth in Chapter XI.

References

CHAPTER III

OÖPHORECTOMY

Oöphorectomy signifies the removal through an abdominal incision of an ovary and Fallopian tube for affections mainly inflammatory.

The evolution of this operation is of great interest to surgeons. The removal of ovaries as a surgical operation was introduced independently by Hégar in Germany and Battey in Georgia, for the relief of pelvic pain and dysmenorrhœa, in 1872. In the same year Lawson Tait performed his pioneer operation and removed an ovary and tube for the relief of pain due to disease of the ovary. Subsequently he advocated bilateral oöphorectomy for the purpose of inducing an artificial menopause in women with uterine fibroids. From these beginnings the operation began to be performed for the relief of a variety of conditions connected with the generative organs, such as—

Pyosalpinx and tubo-ovarian abscess, hydrosalpinx, tuberculous ovaries and tubes, sarcoma and carcinoma of the Fallopian tubes, gravid Fallopian tubes, ovarian abscess, ovarian pregnancy, prolapse of the ovary; finally bilateral removal of the ovaries has been practised for the relief of inoperable cancer of the breast.

Bilateral oöphorectomy is occasionally performed for osteomalacia (a rare disease in Great Britain), as it arrests pain and the excessive output of phosphates in the urine, which is a marked feature of this affection. This extension of the operation we owe to Fehling of Bâle (1887).

Time and experience have considerably modified surgical opinion in regard to oöphorectomy. Removal of the ovaries is no longer practised for the relief of hæmorrhage due to fibroids: it is easier, safer, and affords greater relief to the patient to remove the uterus (see p. 36). When dysmenorrhœa is so severe as to need radical operation, hysterectomy is the only certain method, with conservation of at least one ovary. The removal of both ovaries in certain forms of insanity is now abandoned, and this is true of bilateral oöphorectomy for the relief of mammary cancer.

In other directions the operation has undergone extension, for in some chronic diseases of the Fallopian tubes it is difficult to completely extirpate the affected tissues without removing the uterus. These will be considered in describing the actual operation.

Apart from the many modifications in the details of the operations some operators prefer to remove the ovaries and tubes through an incision in the vaginal fornix. This is known as Colpotomy, or Vaginal Cœliotomy.

Some writers attempt to subdivide the various modifications of oöphorectomy and apply to them special terms: for example, the removal of the ovary and tube would be termed salpingo-oöphorectomy. Removal of the tube would be called salpingectomy, and the excision of the ovary, oöphorectomy. This terminology may be precise, but it is certainly clumsy. A few writers designate these operations as ‘removal of the uterine appendages’; this phrase, though comprehensive, is neither precise nor elegant.

Operation. The patient is prepared in the same manner, and the same instruments are required, as for ovariotomy. In many of these operations the Trendelenburg position is of the greatest advantage.

In a case of prolapse of the ovary, or a gravid tube or ovary in the earliest stages, the operation presents no difficulty and can be carried out with the ease and safety of the simplest ovariotomy; but there are many cases where the tubes and ovaries contain pus and are distended into cysts as big as a fist, or even as large as the patient’s head, which are adherent to bowel, uterus, bladder, indeed everything with which they come in contact; this renders their removal tedious and exacting for the surgeon and dangerous to the patient. Although a suppurating ovarian cyst adheres to surrounding organs, its removal is simpler than in the case of a large pyosalpinx, because the Fallopian tube is intimately enclosed within the folds of the broad ligament, and these connexions serve to bind it firmly in the pelvis.

In undertaking the removal of such enlarged tubes the surgeon’s first duty is to expose the parts by a free incision, and then carefully isolate the intestines and upper parts of the abdomen with dabs in order to prevent them from being contaminated with pus. He will quickly recognize in the majority of cases that he has to deal with tubal disease, because the distended uterine section of the tube will lie on the more globular outer portion of the tube and assume the familiar shape of a chemical retort. With the fingers the adherent omentum and bowels are carefully detached, and the adhesions between the distended tube or ovary and the rectum are carefully broken through with the finger, and the parts withdrawn from the pelvis. With great care it is usually possible to carry this out without bursting the tube. This is important as it prevents the universal spread of pus in the pelvis. When the tube bursts in the process of removal it is useful to swab it up with some strips of gauze and thus keep the ‘Gamgee dabs’ clean for the final stages.

As soon as the diseased parts are extracted, a dab is pressed into the hollow to check the oozing: the pedicle is clamped with forceps and the tube and ovary detached.

It is the common practice in dealing with inflamed and septic ovaries and tubes to transfix and ligature the pedicles as in a simple clean ovariotomy. The consequences of this practice are not satisfactory, for the pedicles being infected often give rise to trouble, because the silk acts as a seton, an abscess forms which may open up through the abdominal wound, the rectum, or perforate into the bladder, and leads to the establishment of a sinus which persists for many months until the ligature is extruded. There are several methods of avoiding this: for example, the arteries in these broad pedicles may be ligatured separately with thin silk, and the edges of the peritoneum drawn together by two or three mattress sutures (Fig. 11, p. 40).

Fig. 3. An Infected Fallopian Tube. The cœlomic ostium of the tube is unoccluded and is in the process of slowly engulfing the fimbriæ. Removed from a woman in the acute stage of salpingitis. Three-quarter size.

In cases where the Fallopian tube is thickened quite up to the uterine angle, it may be exsected from the uterus: in such cases the uterine artery will be tied and the flaps at the uterine angle can be brought into apposition by a mattress suture.

In acute cases of salpingitis the cœlomic ostium is open and the infective material can be seen leaking from it (Fig. 3). In chronic cases this ostium is firmly occluded (Fig. 4). Acute cases are dangerous as they are apt to cause post-operative peritonitis. Chronic cases are difficult on account of visceral adhesions.

Fig. 4. A Tuberculous Fallopian Tube and Ovary: Entire and in Section. Caseous matter has exuded through the cœlomic ostium of the tube and become encapsuled. Natural size.

The most serious complication likely to arise in the enucleation of a pyosalpinx, especially on the left side, is a firm adhesion to the rectum; this may be occasionally anticipated when the patient gives a clear history of one or more sudden discharges of pus from the anus. An accidental tear of the rectum through comparatively healthy tissues may be repaired by interrupted sutures, but when the injury is in tissues altered by chronic suppuration, the only course open to the surgeon is to drain with a wide rubber tube, and it is surprising as well as gratifying to know that a fistula of this kind low in the rectum will often close in a week or ten days. It is important to bear in mind that an undetected tear into the rectum, if the abdomen be closed without drainage, will, in all probability, lead to fatal peritonitis.

It has happened that a surgeon in removing a pyosalpinx tore a hole in the rectum; he was unaware of the accident, and a few hours after the operation ordered 10 ounces of saline solution to be injected into the bowel. This fluid passed through the rent in the gut direct into the pelvis with fatal consequences.

After removing the diseased parts and securing the large vessels directly concerned in the pedicles, attention is directed to the oozing from the torn tissues in the floor of the pelvis. Any vessel which is bleeding should be ligatured with thin silk, and then the recesses of the pelvis may be firmly plugged with a dab wrung out of hot water: this is a valuable measure of hæmostasis. This dab is removed in two or three minutes, and any vessel which is bleeding is quickly seen and ligatured.

In cases where the enucleation of adherent and inflamed tubes leaves large raw and slightly oozing surfaces in the pelvis, drainage is a wise precaution. After a trial of a variety of measures for this purpose I find the simplest to be a narrow rubber drainage tube reaching to the bottom of the pelvis and emerging at the lower extremity of the abdominal incision. It is rarely required for more than forty-eight hours. Some surgeons are opposed to drainage, and one writer compares it to ‘defending oneself against the sparks of Vulcan with an umbrella’; his mortality is high.

In simple cases the incision is closed according to the method described on p. 9; but after the removal of suppurating ovaries and tubes it is better to unite the wound by a single layer of sutures through all the tissues of the abdominal wall: buried sutures in such conditions nearly always give trouble.

Abdominal hysterectomy after bilateral oöphorectomy and ovariotomy. After the complete removal of the ovaries and tubes the uterus is a useless organ, and when the ‘appendages’ have been removed for inflammatory lesions, acute or chronic, it may become a troublesome organ. In some instances a uterus devoid of its appendages has been attacked by cancer. In a few instances in which patients have undergone bilateral oöphorectomy, or bilateral ovariotomy, successful conception has followed the operation (see p. 17).

The most annoying consequences which follow bilateral oöphorectomy for salpingitis, acute or chronic, are hæmorrhage, pain, or a purulent discharge. Every surgeon with an ordinary experience of this class of surgery has probably had to remove the uterus on several occasions as a sequel to bilateral oöphorectomy.

It is advised by many surgeons, when they find the appendages so hopelessly diseased that they must be removed, to perform subtotal hysterectomy at the same time. My own practice in this matter is to perform subtotal hysterectomy when it is necessary to remove the uterus as well as the appendages in chronic disease; and total hysterectomy when it is deemed advisable to remove the uterus with the appendages in acute infective conditions. The reasons for this modification are obvious, because in chronic conditions there is little liability for the stump to become infected, for experience teaches that though the distended tubes contain pus in chronic cases, yet on bacteriological examination this pus is sterile. In the acute cases the pus swarms with micro-organisms—bacillus colli, staphylococcus, and occasionally streptococcus; these infect the stump, set up suppuration, infect the ligatures, and establish a chronic sinus. To cure this condition it is necessary to remove the stump by the vaginal route.

In cases of tuberculous infection of the Fallopian tubes it is not necessary to remove the uterus unless it is obviously implicated by the disease. In several patients I have left an ovary without any subsequent ill consequences.

Mortality. In order to estimate the risks of oöphorectomy it is necessary to classify the heterogenous conditions for which this operation is required. In the majority of cases the chief cause is inflammatory (septic) affections of the Fallopian tubes: other causes are tubal and ovarian pregnancy, and prolapse of the ovary. Tubal pregnancy is considered in a separate chapter, and as prolapse of the ovary is so often associated with retroflexion of the uterus it is dealt with in the chapter on Hysteropexy.

In order to give some notion of the relative frequency of the infective conditions of the tubes and ovaries usually classed in Hospital Reports as ‘diseased uterine appendages’, I chose one hundred consecutive operations from my case-reports at the Chelsea Hospital for Women. They are classed thus:—

In order to give some idea of the risks of unilateral and bilateral oöphorectomy, I gathered the following facts from the Hospital Reports, prepared by the Registrar. During the years 1903–7 (both years inclusive) the staff performed the operation of oöphorectomy for diseased uterine appendages on 287 women. Of these four died. During the thirteen years I have filled the post of surgeon to this hospital I have performed on an average twenty oöphorectomies yearly for the diseased conditions set forth in the above table. I lost one patient during the whole of this period, and that was in 1902. The chief risks of oöphorectomy for inflammatory conditions are undetected injury to bowel, especially the rectum, and septic peritonitis when the streptococcus is present in the tubes in acute cases.

Operation for primary cancer of the Fallopian tube. This disease is rarely diagnosed before operation. The treatment adopted in the cases first reported was oöphorectomy, but in the majority of patients the disease quickly returned and destroyed them in a few months.

It subsequently became the practice to remove the uterus as well as the tubes and ovaries, but a quick recurrence in these circumstances is the rule.

The really favouring factor in the case is the condition of the cœlomic ostium of the tube. When this remains open, the cancerous cells escape freely and implant themselves on the pelvic peritoneum and adjacent organs. In very rare instances the cœlomic ostium is occluded: in this happy circumstance a fairly long freedom from recurrence may be hoped for.

The relation between the condition of the cœlomic ostium of the Fallopian tube and the recurrence of cancer is illustrated by the following cases:—

A woman, fifty-seven years of age, had a large submucous fibroid in the uterus. At the operation the cœlomic ostium was not only patent, but the carcinoma protruded through it and nodules of growth could be seen on the wall of the rectum at the point where the tube rested on the bowel. The patient recovered from the operation and enjoyed good health for eleven months, then signs of recurrence became manifest and she died a few weeks later.

Fig. 5. Primary Cancer of the Fallopian Tube. An ovarian cyst associated with primary cancer of the corresponding tube. The cœlomic ostium is open and the cancerous material has leaked out on to the cyst wall. Half size.

Fig. 6. A Section of Primary Cancer of the Fallopian Tube. This is the cyst wall and cancerous tube represented in the preceding drawing: it shows the cancerous infiltration of the cyst wall. Half size.

A woman, forty-nine years of age, had a large fibroid in her uterus and a Fallopian tube stuffed with cancer, but the cœlomic ostium was completely occluded. The uterus, ovaries, and tubes were removed. The patient subsequently remarried and was in good health three years later.

Primary cancer of the Fallopian tube is almost invariably unilateral and its association with fibroids of the uterus is unusual. It is necessary for the surgeon to remember that a cancerous Fallopian tube may lead to complications with an ovarian cyst. Our knowledge of primary cancer of the Fallopian tube has grown up within the last twenty years, and some of the recorded cases puzzled the reporters because the disease was associated with a cyst, sometimes of a large size.

In Fig. 5 I have represented an instructive specimen, which is an ovarian cyst complicated with primary cancer of the corresponding Fallopian tube. In this instance the cyst was as big as a cocoa-nut and multilocular: the ampulla of the tube is stuffed with cancer, but the ostium is patent and a ‘stream’ of cancerous material has flowed over the wall of the cyst. In addition, the cancerous material has infiltrated the wall of the ovarian cyst. The patient recovered from the operation, but a year later she had an extensive recurrence.

The primary mortality of simple oöphorectomy, or oöphorectomy combined with hysterectomy for primary cancer of the Fallopian tube, is about 5%, and this is low in comparison with abdominal hysterectomy for cancer of the cervix; it is due to the fact that tubal cancer does not so readily become septic (Doran).

References

CHAPTER IV

OPERATIONS FOR EXTRA-UTERINE GESTATION

The systematic surgical treatment of extra-uterine gestation we owe to the genius of Lawson Tait. His first operation for this condition was performed in 1883. Tait wrote that he conceived and carried out this operation in obedience to the canon of surgery relating to the arrest of hæmorrhage, and which is valid in other regions of the body.

Many surgeons (even a butcher) had removed living, dead, and putrescent extra-uterine fœtuses from the abdomen of living women, but Tait was the first to attempt the operation in those early stages of tubal gestation in which the tube bursts, or expels (tubal abortion) the products of conception through the cœlomic ostium or a rent in the gestation-sac, into the abdominal cavity, accompanied by an escape of blood so abundant that it may destroy life in a few hours.

Indications. The operative treatment of extra-uterine gestation depends mainly on the stage at which it is required.

When a gravid tube is detected before rupture, the operation is practically that of oöphorectomy: and is simple and safe.

When the operation is required in consequence of the bursting, or abortion, of an early gravid tube, great promptness is often required on the part of the surgeon to prevent the patient dying from hæmorrhage, and although the operation in these circumstances is really an oöphorectomy, it often has to be performed in the patient’s room as an emergency operation and without the elaborate surroundings of a modern operating theatre.

Fig. 7. A Gravid Fallopian Tube. There is a hole in the gestation-sac, and tufts of villi project through it. The patient was in the seventh week of her tenth pregnancy when she was seized with abdominal pain and died in ten hours from hæmorrhage. (Museum of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.) Natural size.

There are few accidents which test the skill, nerve, and resource of a surgeon more than cœliotomy for a suspected intraperitoneal hæmorrhage from a gravid tube, and few operations are attended with such brilliant results. Surgeons are often astonished to find a large amount of blood in the pelvis due to a small perforation in a gestation-sac no bigger than a cherry (Fig. 7).

Operation. In removing tubes of this kind it is necessary to apply the ligature on the uterine side of the rent in cases of rupture of the tube, but when the rent involves the wall of the uterus the opening will require the application of a mattress suture for its complete closure. In some rare instances of the interstitial variety of tubal pregnancy, the uterus has been so involved that in order to effectually control the bleeding it has been found necessary to remove the uterus.

After the pedicle has been safely ligatured and the blood removed, the abdominal incision is sutured as described on p. 9. When the shock due to the bleeding and operation has been great, it is sometimes judicious to pour one or two pints of saline solution at the temperature of 102° F. direct into the abdominal cavity.

The majority of cases of internal bleeding from gravid tubes in the early stages are submitted to operation at periods varying from a few hours, days, weeks, or even months, after the primary bleeding.

When the tube bursts, the hæmorrhage may not be so profuse as to induce death; and the woman, recovering from the shock, does not manifest such grave symptoms as to demand surgical aid. The consequence is that the patient sometimes remains for several weeks under palliative treatment (unless a renewal of bleeding kills her), and at last she seeks surgical advice. Appreciation of the true nature of the case leads to operation.

In such cases, when the abdomen is opened, the free blood in the abdominal cavity is easily removed by sterilized dabs of absorbent material. The damaged tube and ovary are removed as in oöphorectomy. When there is much free blood care must be taken that no clots are left in the iliac fossæ. When the blood has remained in the belly for several weeks after rupture, it is judicious to insert a small drain for a few days. The importance of removing blood and blood-clot from the peritoneal cavity is demonstrated on p. 98.

Where a tubal pregnancy progresses beyond the third or fourth month and invades the broad ligament before giving trouble from internal bleeding, an operation may be necessary at any moment. At this period the operation consists in exposing the parts by a median subumbilical incision, and then opening the gestation-sac, turning out the fœtus, placenta, and clot, and controlling the bleeding by firmly packing the cavity with dabs. The edges of the sac are then stitched to the lower end of the wound; the upper part of the incision is closed, and the sac is drained with a rubber tube of suitable size and allowed to gradually heal.

In cases where the pregnancy continues beyond the fourth month to full time an operation may be required at any moment. Up to the fourth month it may be even possible, in some cases, to remove the embryo, placenta and gestation-sac on the same plan as an ovarian cyst. This is occasionally possible even when the gestation runs to term, but in the majority of cases, when the gestation has passed the fourth month and the fœtus is alive, the surgeon cannot expect to deal with the sac in this summary manner, (unless it be a cornual pregnancy) he has to reckon with the placenta.

Fig. 8. A Gravid Fallopian Tube, containing Twins. (McCann’s case. Museum R. College of Surgeons.) Full size.

In operating for the removal of a gravid tube in the early weeks, the surgeon may be exercised in his mind in regard to the opposite tube, for a careful study of the literature of this subject clearly shows that the patient is liable to conceive in the opposite tube, and in some instances this has happened within a few weeks of the removal of its fellow. The liability of a repeated tubal pregnancy may be fixed at 5 per cent. Moreover, in operating for tubal pregnancy, the opposite tube should be carefully examined, because both tubes may be gravid, though, as a rule, the pregnancies are of different dates. To spare a woman a recurrence of tubal pregnancy it has been urged that the surgeon should remove the opposite tube, but men of ripe experience and judgment are averse to such a proceeding, for it is an established fact that uterine pregnancy is not uncommon after unilateral tubal gestation. My own experience is in harmony with this. In some cases of unilateral tubal abortion the operator has cleared out the tubal mole and clot, and left the tube. This is not good practice: I think a tube which has once been pregnant should be removed. If the opposite tube is obviously diseased, and this happens in a small proportion of patients, it should be removed.

The method of dealing with the sac of an extra-uterine gestation after the fifth month depends in a great measure upon whether the fœtus is alive or dead. The gestation-sac after this date consists usually of the expanded tube closely incorporated with the tissues of the broad ligament, which may be thick in some parts and very thin in others. To the walls of the sac, coils of the intestine, and particularly the rectum, adhere. Experience decides that the safest plan, after exposing the gestation-sac through an abdominal incision, is to cut into it and remove the fœtus and placenta. When the fœtus is dead there will be little trouble from the placenta. The edges of the incision are stitched to the margin of the abdominal wound and drained.

In those rare cases where the amnion erodes the tube and invades the belly (ventral pregnancy), the gestation-sac, with its contents, has been successfully removed by merely transfixing its base with silk ligatures.

The great danger of operations for extra-uterine gestation after the fifth month, when the fœtus is alive, or only recently dead, is the furious bleeding which accompanies the detachment of the placenta. It may be stated that an operation for tubal pregnancy after the fifth month of gestation, with a quick placenta, is the most dangerous in the whole range of surgery. About two-thirds of the patients die. The greatest danger is hæmorrhage, and the other is sepsis when the placenta has been left to slough. It cannot be urged with too much force that when it is fairly evident that a woman has an extra-uterine gestation, it should be dealt with by operation without delay: and my experience of the operation leads me to believe that it is a wise plan to remove the placenta at the primary operation. Fortunately very few extra-uterine fœtuses survive to term.

In cornual pregnancy, or, as it is often termed, ‘pregnancy in the rudimentary horn of a so-called unicorn uterus,’ the removal of the uterus is often necessary; there is, however, a variety of this form of pregnancy in which the fully developed cornu may be spared, namely, that in which the rudimentary but gravid cornu is connected with it by a distinct and usually solid pedicle. Many such have been observed and very carefully described.

In nearly all varieties of tubal pregnancy the uterine tissues are sometimes so torn that it is difficult to arrest the hæmorrhage: in this case it is now and then a wise practice to remove the uterus.

Concurrent intra- and extra-uterine pregnancy. The operative treatment of this condition requires consideration under three headings:—

1. Tubal and uterine pregnancy coexist, but the complication is recognized in the early stages. In this condition the signs are those of an early tubal rupture or abortion (Fig. 7); in the majority of the reported cases operation has been undertaken with the impression that the trouble was simply due to tubal pregnancy, the intra-uterine gestation being detected, or in some cases merely inferred from the size of the uterus, in the course of the operation.

In these circumstances the operation is carried out as for a simple tubal pregnancy, care being taken to disturb the uterus as little as possible. In many instances such an operation has been followed by brilliant consequences, for the intra-uterine pregnancy has remained undisturbed and the patients have become the happy mothers of living children.

Occasionally the operation has been followed by miscarriage and other untoward results, but, speaking generally, a gravid uterus is very tolerant of interference.

2. Uterine and extra-uterine pregnancy running concurrently to term. (Compound pregnancy.) This may be described as the most dangerous combination to which child-bearing women are liable. In order to show what a disastrous conjunction it is to women with two ‘quick’ children—one intra- and the other extra-uterine—I have arranged some recorded cases in the table on p. 35. Fortunately this form of compound pregnancy is rare, but a rarer combination has been recorded by Menge, in which the extra-uterine fœtus occupied the ovary and ran nearly to term. When the woman came into labour, the ovarian pregnancy was regarded as an obstructing tumour, and preparations were made for performing cœliotomy. The intra-uterine child was born in the meantime. When the supposed tumour was extracted, to the surprise of all it contained a living fœtus. The mother and both children survived.

3. Uterine pregnancy complicated with a sequestered extra-uterine fœtus. This is a very rare condition, but some cases have been very carefully recorded (Leopold, Stonham, Worrall).

The physical signs are those of a pelvic tumour incarcerated by a gravid uterus. The nature of the swelling may be sometimes accurately inferred before operation, as in Worrall’s remarkable case. The sequestered fœtus should be removed by cœliotomy.

After the death of the fœtus the operative treatment of extra-uterine gestation is, as a rule, a simple proceeding, the fœtus and placenta can be easily and safely removed. We have no certain means of deciding when an extra-uterine fœtus is dead, nor do we know exactly how long after the death of the fœtus the placental circulation ceases, but we do know that in course of time, if the fœtus is retained, the placenta disappears, because in cases where the fœtus is in the condition known as lithopædion there is usually no placenta. When a retained extra-uterine fœtus is wholly or partially converted into adipocere, the tissues have a strong tendency to adhere to the walls of the sac. This is especially marked in connexion with the hairy scalp.

Although a sequestered extra-uterine fœtus is uncommon, yet a surgeon may stumble on one when he least expects it: these bodies may remain undisturbed in the pelvis many years, even fifty, and be only discovered in the post-mortem room, but they are always liable to be infected from the adjacent bowel or bladder; then suppuration is inevitable. In some instances the pus makes its escape at the umbilicus, and as the sinus persists the surgeon explores it, and, on laying it open, is surprised when he extracts the fœtus, sometimes entire.

This is sometimes referred to as ‘navel delivery’, and of this several examples have been recorded. In one such case a fœtus was extracted by a butcher: the woman recovered, and the account of this remarkable case ends thus: ‘She had a navel rupture, owing to the ignorance of the man in not applying a proper bandage’ (Phil. Trans., Abridged Edition, 1805, vol. viii, p. 517). This is a good instance of professional bias in the apportioning of blame.

Usually, when pathogenic micro-organisms gain access to the gestation-sac the fœtus decomposes, and fistulæ form, by which pus, accompanied by fragments of fœtal tissue and bones, finds an exit and affords evidence of the nature of the case. These fistulæ may open into the rectum, bladder, vagina, uterus, or some spot on the anterior abdominal wall below or near the umbilicus. The treatment is simple, and consists in dilating the sinus and extracting all the fragments. If this be thoroughly carried out the sinus quickly closes. Partial operations are useless: if but a bit of a bone remain, a troublesome sinus will persist. It is bad practice to attempt to extirpate the sac in such condition; such an operation usually terminates fatally.

In a case of old-standing lithopædion it is unusual to find any trace of the placenta. J. W. Smith operated on a woman in whom a lithopædion had caused intestinal obstruction. The fœtus had probably been retained 15½ years, and the placenta was represented by a calcified encapsuled ball, with an average diameter of 6 cm.

Results of operative treatment. In order to afford some notion of the risks attending the surgical treatment of extra-uterine gestation, as well as to give an idea of its relative frequency in hospital practice, the following figures will serve. From 1896 to 1907, both years inclusive, 116 operations were performed for extra-uterine gestation in the Chelsea Hospital for Women. During this period all the varieties of tubal pregnancy were encountered (ampullary, isthmial, tubo-uterine), including the rare condition of a full-time living fœtus free among the intestines, and the more uncommon condition of a full-time cornual pregnancy. There were four deaths in the series, one in 1897, 1902, and two in 1905. Death in the fatal cases was attributed to pulmonary embolism, peritonitis, and in two to heart failure.

A Table showing Cases of Concurrent Intra- and Extra-uterine Pregnancy (Compound Pregnancy) running to Term, with the Fate of the Mother and Children.

¹ This fœtus was killed by means of a stilette passed through the abdominal wall of the mother into its thorax. The patient had two subsequent confinements without difficulty. In 1898 the ‘lump’ had shrunk, but was movable and caused no difficulty. Pacific Medical Journal, September, 1898.

² Intra-uterine child born naturally at the seventh month. Extra-uterine fœtus died, set up septic changes, and was removed by cœliotomy some weeks later.

References

CHAPTER V

HYSTERECTOMY AND MYOMECTOMY

Hysterectomy is the name applied to the surgical operation for the removal of the uterus.

Indications. Hysterectomy is mainly required in the radical treatment of fibroids and malignant disease (carcinoma, sarcoma, and chorion-epithelioma). It is occasionally required for injury, and certain morbid states due to acute and chronic sepsis; and for a condition but little understood, termed generically fibrosis. Hysterectomy is also carried out for such conditions as diffuse adenomyoma of the uterus, hæmato-metra, tuberculous endometritis, and on rare occasions for chronic inversion of the uterus and inveterate dysmenorrhœa.

The presence of fibroids in the uterus is a common cause for which hysterectomy is required, and the history of this operation is full of interest.

The uterus may be removed by two methods. In one, access is obtained to the uterus through an incision in the belly-wall; this is termed abdominal hysterectomy. In the other, the whole uterus is extirpated through the vagina, and on this account it is termed vaginal hysterectomy or colpo-hysterectomy.

The abdominal method of removing the uterus may be performed in two ways:—

In one the body of the uterus and a portion of its neck is removed; this is called subtotal hysterectomy (or supravaginal hysterectomy). In the other the body of the uterus and the whole of its neck are excised: this is total hysterectomy (or panhysterectomy). The ovaries and Fallopian tubes may, or may not, be removed, according to the disease for which the operation is undertaken. This is a matter which will receive ample consideration later on (see p. 56).

For the satisfactory performance of abdominal hysterectomy the Trendelenburg position is necessary.

SUBTOTAL HYSTERECTOMY

The abdomen is opened by the median subumbilical incision; but when the operation is performed for the removal of large tumours it will frequently require extension above the umbilicus. The operator should never allow himself to be embarrassed by a small incision. As soon as the peritoneal cavity is reached, the surgeon introduces his hand and carefully makes out the nature of the case, the presence or otherwise of adhesions, other tumours, and the relation of the fibroid to the uterus, and determines whether it is impacted in the pelvis. The uterus is then carefully lifted out through the incision, or drawn out with the assistance of a volsella; the intestines and omentum are isolated from the pelvis with a large warm dab.

Fig. 9. A Diagram to show the Arterial Supply of the Uterus.

In a simple case the broad ligaments are seized with hæmostatic forceps; if the ovaries and tubes are healthy and the surgeon wishes to preserve them, the forceps are applied between the ovary and the uterus; but if they are obviously diseased and must be sacrificed, the forceps are applied to the broad ligaments near the brim of the pelvis beyond the outer pole of the ovary. In some instances the round ligament of the uterus can be seized with the same forceps, but in many cases it is necessary to clip it separately. It is an advantage to secure the round ligament at this stage, for the forceps controls its artery and prevents the stump of the ligament unduly retracting the peritoneum. The broad and round ligament on each side are divided, and the uterine artery is exposed on each side of the uterus and caught with forceps: a peritoneal flap is then fashioned on the anterior wall of the uterus at its junction with the neck, taking care not to injure the bladder; and a similar flap is cut on the posterior wall. The uterus is then detached at a point well below the junction of the cervix with the body of the uterus: if the forceps are correctly applied to the vessels the detachment of the uterus is an almost bloodless proceeding: a small vessel here and there will perhaps require the application of a pair of forceps.

The principle involved in this part of the operation may be explained by reference to the diagram (Fig. 9). The blood-supply of the uterus follows four routes; two of these are the ovarian arteries which traverse the broad ligaments to reach the cornua of the uterus, where they anastomose with the terminations of the uterine arteries; the latter come into relation with the uterus near the junction of the body and cervix, and then ascend the sides of the uterus to the cornua. No large vessels are found on the anterior or posterior surface of the uterus. An arterial twig runs along the round ligament, bringing the ovarian artery into relation with the deep epigastric artery. If the surgeon thoroughly appreciates the distribution of the ovarian and uterine vessels he will at once perceive that if the four forceps are properly applied to the vessels the blood-supply is under absolute control: indeed, in many cases a subtotal hysterectomy can be performed without the loss of more than an ounce of blood. When the broad ligament is clamped and detached there is a spurt of blood from the uterine cornu which lasts until the corresponding uterine artery is caught with the forceps, and the cessation of the bleeding at the uterine cornu is a sign that the artery is securely clipped. It must be remembered that with a small tumour in the uterus the vessels follow their normal courses and can be easily found, but when the uterus is deformed by huge tumours, the vessels are not so easily seen, and they are of large size and give rise to furious bleeding when divided. In dealing with large and vascular uterine fibroids another factor has to be reckoned with, namely, the enormous veins in the pampiniform plexus, interspersed with lymphatics which in some cases are as thick as the index-finger; it is not an uncommon thing to meet with lymphatics in this situation a centimetre in diameter and filled with straw-coloured lymph.

Fig. 10. A Fibroid growing near the Right Uterine Cornu. It separates the ovarian ligament, Fallopian tube, and round ligament of the uterus from each other. Full size.

The surgeon now secures the vessels. The ovarian pedicles are transfixed and ligatured with silk as in ovariotomy: the round ligament is usually included in the ovarian pedicle. It occasionally happens that a fibroid situated near the uterine cornu will grow in such a manner that it widely separates the ovarian ligament, the Fallopian tube, and the round ligament from each other as shown in Fig. 10. In such a condition it is impossible to save the ovary without risk, and also inadvisable to attempt the inclusion of the round ligament in the pedicle containing the ovarian vessels. In these circumstances the round ligament is easily secured by a mattress suture, which should include both layers of the corresponding broad ligament.

When the surgeon decides to leave an ovary and the corresponding Fallopian tube, these structures are carefully examined to determine if they are healthy and free from any suspicious fluid. When the endometrium is septic or cancerous both ovaries and tubes should be removed. When the surgeon decides to leave an ovary and its corresponding Fallopian tube, he should take care in securing the ligatures to include the ligament of the ovary: it is very liable to slip out of the encircling loop of silk. It is often convenient to include the round ligament of the uterus in the pedicle, but it is not a disadvantage when it is tied separately.

The uterine arteries are ligatured with thin silk; these vessels as they run up the sides of the uterus are accompanied by veins, so that there is a vascular tract at the point where the cervix is divided. If after the uterine vessels are secured there is oozing from these veins, it is easily controlled by a mattress suture. This kind of suture is so useful that the mode of inserting it may be given in more detail. In the diagram (Fig. 11) the silk is represented in position before it is tied, and in that particular instance it is represented as being passed through the peritoneal flaps from before backwards, and this is usually the most convenient route; occasionally the reverse direction is easier. It will be noticed in the diagram that this suture not only controls oozing from the tissue in the immediate neighbourhood of the uterine vessels, but it also embraces the main vessels, and thus serves as an additional security against hæmorrhage; it also brings the peritoneal flaps into apposition.

Fig. 11. The Mattress Suture. A diagram to show the method of applying it.

Fig. 12. The Stump after Subtotal Hysterectomy. To show the method of applying the continuous suture.

As soon as the oozing of blood has been controlled, the cervical canal is examined to ascertain if it be free from polypi or cancer. Should the condition of the cervix be in the least degree suspicious of cancer it must be extirpated. When it is healthy, then the flaps are brought together by one or two interrupted sutures, and the edges more carefully approximated by a continuous suture of thin silk. In suturing the flaps it is necessary to avoid puncturing the bladder, which is quite close to, and often forms part of, the anterior flap. Care must also be taken in passing the needle (especially when it has sharp edges) in the neighbourhood of the stumps of the uterine arteries, or they will be pricked, and then free bleeding will cause delay in the operation.

When this operation is properly performed, there should be no projecting stump on the floor of the pelvis; the sutured edges of the peritoneum merely appear as a thin line below the base of the bladder.

The pelvis is now cleared of blood and clot; the dabs and instruments are counted, and it is also useful to examine the condition of the vermiform appendix, and if grossly diseased it should be removed.

The abdominal incision is then sutured in the way described on p. 9.

TOTAL HYSTERECTOMY

This operation differs from the preceding in the fact that the neck of the uterus is removed as well as its body. The abdomen is opened in the usual way and the uterus is withdrawn from the abdomen and the arteries controlled by forceps, and the broad ligaments divided exactly as in the case of the subtotal operation. Unless the uterus be very big it is drawn well out of the abdomen and the bladder peeled off its anterior aspect. The surgeon then feels for the extremity of the cervix and opens the vagina with the scalpel and carefully detaches it from the neck of the uterus, taking great care to keep close to the cervix in order to avoid wounding the bladder or the ureters. As soon as the uterus is detached, the cut edge of the vagina is seized with the volsella to prevent it retracting. In some instances the body of the uterus may be removed as in the subtotal operation, and the cervix detached separately; occasionally the surgeon begins his operation with the intention of performing the subtotal operation, but finds the cervix unhealthy or cancerous, and removes it.

As soon as the uterus is removed and all bleeding under control, then the blood-vessels are secured with ligatures; the ovarian artery and vein are secured on each side in the usual manner. The chief point in this operation is the method of dealing with the vaginal opening. In the subtotal operation the vessels concerned in the stump are the uterine arteries, but in the total operation the territory of the vaginal arteries is invaded, and these vessels are apt to bleed when the patient is returned to bed, unless care is taken to secure them in the course of the operation. The parts which require most attention are the lateral angles in the immediate neighbourhood of the uterine arteries; these angles may be secured by a mattress suture involving the anterior and posterior wall of the vagina; any oozing on the anterior or posterior wall is commanded by a mattress suture involving these walls separately, so as not to completely close the vaginal opening. Bleeding from the cut edges of the vagina may also be readily controlled by means of a continuous suture of thin silk. The peritoneum is sutured over the cut ends of the vagina, so that when the operation is completed a thin seam is seen lying under the base of the bladder.

In cases where the uterus is removed for septic conditions, such, for example, as an infected or gangrenous fibroid, or when cancer of the corporeal endometrium and a submucous fibroid coexist, I modify the last stages of the operation. After the ovarian and uterine arteries are ligatured, the cut edges of the vagina are secured in the following way: the cut edge of the peritoneum covering the bladder is stitched to the cut edge of the anterior wall of the vagina, and in the same way the peritoneum in relation with the posterior vaginal wall is stitched to the corresponding cut edge of the vagina. The flaps at the lateral angles of the vaginal opening are drawn together with a suture and the intervening segment is left with merely the cut edges in apposition: this affords a route for the escape of pus if required.

Whether the peritoneum is sutured over the vaginal opening, or whether the edges are merely left in apposition, the recesses of the pelvis are thoroughly cleared of fluid and clot. The dabs and instruments are counted, and the wound sutured as recommended on p. 9. In septic conditions the abdominal incision should be closed with a single row of through and through sutures. Before the patient leaves the operating table it is useful to examine the vagina and mop out any blood which has found its way there in the course of the operation. It is also useful to pass a glass catheter and withdraw any urine that has accumulated during the operation.

If there is evidence of free oozing it is most likely to come from the cut edges of the vaginal wall in a case of total hysterectomy: under such conditions it is easy to apply a pair of fenestrated forceps to the oozing area and leave them on for thirty-six hours. They will cause the patient trifling inconvenience. Care must be taken not to fix the blade too far on the anterior flap, or it will lead to subsequent sloughing of the bladder.

When there is free oozing of blood from the cervical canal after subtotal hysterectomy, it is easily and safely controlled by applying a pair of fenestrated forceps on each side of the cervix, but not too deeply, or the ureters may be nipped. These should be left on for thirty-six hours.

Fig. 13. A Bicornate Uterus. This uterus is shown in coronal section; each cornu contains a fibroid. Removed from a spinster aged 32 on account of acute pain probably caused by the axial rotation of one cornu. Two-fifths size.

The details of the operation set forth in this account refer to a simple or uncomplicated hysterectomy, and under these conditions it cannot be described as a difficult operation to any surgeon accustomed to abdominal operations, but the complications not infrequently met with in connexion with uterine fibroids are occasionally very formidable, and tax the skill and resource of the boldest; e.g. fibroids which are inflamed and adherent to the colon, rectum, or small intestines; fibroids associated with unilateral or bilateral pyosalpinx, or a suppurating ovarian cyst incarcerated in the pelvis by the enlarged uterus; fibroids complicated by cancer in the neck of the uterus; or a cervix fibroid firmly incarcerated in the pelvis by a big fibroid in the fundus of the uterus, and pushing the bladder upwards in front of the tumour.

Cervix fibroids. The operative treatment of this variety needs separate consideration because these tumours do not lend themselves to any routine method.

When the uterus with the tumour in its cervix can be raised out of the pelvis far enough to allow the necessary manipulations, then total hysterectomy can be performed easily and quickly. Occasionally the tumour is wide and so fixed in the pelvis that it will be necessary to split the uterus longitudinally and to enucleate the fibroid from its bed; then an ordinary subtotal or total hysterectomy can be carried out. The enucleation of a large impacted cervix fibroid requires to be conducted carefully, without undue display of force, or so much shock is produced that the patient’s life will be placed in the gravest peril.

Fig. 14. A Bicornate Uterus shortly after Delivery. The pregnancy occurred in the left half. The vesico-rectal ligament is well shown.

On hysterectomy when the uterus is double. Fibroids and cancer arise in malformed uteri, as well as in those of normal shape (Fig. 13). When the body of the uterus is double (bicornate) and the surgeon stumbles upon it in the course of a pelvic operation he may be puzzled if he is not familiar with the anatomical conditions associated with this malformation.

When the body of the uterus is bicornate the rectum lies in the middle line of the pelvis, and a median vertical fold of peritoneum, the ligamentum vesico-rectale passes, from its anterior aspect through the gap between the uterine cornua to become continuous with the peritoneum covering the posterior surface of the bladder (Fig. 14). That portion of the vesico-rectal ligament which lies between the rectum and the neck of the uterus divides the recto-vaginal fossa into a right and a left half. This peritoneal ligament requires careful treatment, or the surgeon may accidentally open the rectum or the bladder. In closing the peritoneum over the cervical stump it is sometimes necessary to bring the edges of the abnormal fold into apposition vertically by a continuous suture.

In a case of this kind in which I performed total hysterectomy for cancer of the neck of the uterus the extensive peritoneal connexions were somewhat troublesome, and when the uterus was removed it seemed as if the floor of the pelvis had been stripped of its serous covering. The bifid nature of the uterus had been anticipated before the operation, as an imperfect vertical septum was known to exist on the posterior vaginal wall. The patient made an excellent recovery.

Experience teaches that bicornate uteri cause more difficulties in diagnosis than in technique, but the presence of the vesico-rectal ligament would probably bar the removal of the uterus by the vaginal route. The existence also of a median longitudinal septum, partial or complete, in the vagina would be another difficulty.

Mortality. In order to give some idea of the great improvement which has taken place in the operation of abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids in London the following figures will be found of great interest.

In the year 1896 the results of abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids in the hospitals of London may be inferred from the following table:—

In these hospitals and the New Hospital for Women the returns in 1906 are as follow:—

Fig. 15. Villous Disease of the Uterus. The uterus is shown in sagittal section. The cavity is dilated and occupied by a villous tumour growing from its posterior wall. Successfully removed from a multipara aged 83. Full size.

The returns during 1906 and 1907 from my service at the Chelsea Hospital for Women and the Middlesex Hospital, as verified by the Registrars, were 101 abdominal hysterectomies for fibroids; all the patients recovered. Of these 101 operations, 7 were total and the remainder subtotal hysterectomy.

The risks of abdominal hysterectomy. The dangers of hysterectomy are those common to cœliotomy, such as sepsis, peritonitis, shock, and the risks of the anæsthetic. There are certain special dangers, such as hæmorrhage; injury to the vesical segments of the ureters, and especially the bladder; injury to the intestines, especially the rectum; acute intestinal obstruction; thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. These risks and dangers are considered fully in their relation to all forms of abdominal gynæcological operations in a special chapter (see Chap. XI).

Among the rarer forms of death after hysterectomy may be mentioned acute perforation of the stomach or the small intestine, cerebral hæmorrhage, lobar pneumonia, thrombosis of the right auricle, embolism of the femoral artery ending in gangrene of the leg, suppression of urine, and acute mania. These are fatal conditions which follow any major operation in surgery, and have no special connexion with hysterectomy.

The removal of the uterus has been rendered so safe that even in advanced age it has been employed with success, as the subjoined table shows:—

Table of Cases in which Hysterectomy was performed on Women of Seventy Years and upwards.

ABDOMINAL MYOMECTOMY

Under this general term it is usual to include operations for the removal, through an abdominal incision, not only of pedunculated subserous fibroids, but also sessile and interstitial (intramural) fibroids of the uterus.

The earliest operations of this kind were performed by Spencer Wells (1863); but little attention was given to this matter until the advantages of abdominal myomectomy were strongly advocated by A. Martin (1880) and Schroeder (1893). The operation has been practised by many surgeons and gynæcologists imbued with conservative ideals in regard to the uterus. In its early days the operation was attended with a very high mortality, but the great improvements in hysterectomy have limited very materially the scope of abdominal myomectomy.

ABDOMINAL MYOMECTOMY AND ENUCLEATION FOR FIBROIDS

Abdominal myomectomy. This signifies the removal of one or more pedunculated subserous fibroids through an incision in the abdominal wall, preserving the uterus, Fallopian tubes, and the ovaries.

Abdominal enucleation. In this operation a sessile fibroid is shelled out of its capsule: the uterus, ovaries, and tubes are preserved.

Hysterotomy. In this operation a submucous fibroid is removed, through an incision in the wall of the uterus, which opens the uterine cavity.

The preliminary steps for each of these procedures is the same as for ovariotomy, and the Trendelenburg position is of great advantage.

After opening the abdomen the intestines are carefully protected by a warm dab, and the tumour carefully examined.

When the stalk is narrow it may be transfixed and secured with silk thread, like the pedicle of an ovarian cyst. When the pedicle is short and broad the tumour should be shelled out of its capsule, and any obvious blood-vessel is easily secured with forceps and ligatured with silk. The opposite flaps of the capsule are brought into apposition by mattress sutures, and the redundant portions of the capsule cut away and the free edges carefully brought together by a continuous suture of thin silk.

When a fibroid is embedded in the wall of the uterus, the tumour is exposed by cutting through its capsule and seizing it with a volsella; as a rule, it shells out quite easily. This is followed by free bleeding. The vessels are then seized with forceps and ligatured with thin silk. In order to completely control the oozing, mattress sutures are passed through the wall of the capsule on each side, their number varying with the size of the tumour.

In some instances a uterus contains ten or more fibroids, and each must be enucleated and the capsule secured with ligatures, as described above.

Sometimes the oozing is difficult to control, and the surgeon sutures the edges of the capsule to the lower angle of the incision, and stuffs the cavity or bed of the tumour with gauze.

In removing a large submucous tumour through an incision in the wall of the uterus, the surgeon necessarily opens the uterine cavity (hysterotomy). After controlling the bleeding the walls of the uterine incision are closed, as in Cæsarean section.

In many instances in which the surgeon attempts to carry out myomectomy or enucleation, he has such difficulty in controlling the oozing that he is driven to remove the uterus.

It is admitted by most writers that the ideal method of dealing with fibroids requiring removal by cœliotomy is to remove them either by ligature or by enucleation. In actual practice this ideal operation of removing the tumours and leaving the uterus and ovaries intact can only be carried out in a small proportion of cases, probably in less than 10 per cent., and it is fair to state that enucleation and hysterotomy are often more troublesome and serious operations than hysterectomy; also the preservation of the uterus is not always an advantage to the patient.

When a woman is submitted to hysterectomy for fibroids we can assure her that the tumours will not recur, but after a myomectomy or enucleation in a woman in the reproductive period of life we cannot give her this assurance, for she may have in her uterus many ‘seedlings’ or ‘latent fibroids’ and one or several of these may grow into formidable tumours.

There are three conditions in which myomectomy and enucleation are legitimate procedures:—

1. A young woman contemplating marriage, or a married woman anxious for offspring, if her tumour be single and admits of myomectomy or enucleation, may have her uterus spared. Although I have carried out these measures on many occasions, I only know of five patients who have subsequently borne children.

2. Occasionally in pregnancy (see p. 82).

3. Myomectomy is a very safe undertaking in patients at, or after, the menopause, where a stalked fibroid gives trouble by twisting its pedicle, or by shrinking to such a size that it falls into the true pelvis and becomes impacted; or, more rarely, the pedicle of such a tumour entangles a loop of small intestine and obstructs it.

In order to give the matter a statistical basis I have drawn up an analysis of ninety-five consecutive cases of myomectomy and enucleation out of my practice, with the subsequent history of some of the patients. This experience covers a period of twelve years.

Of these ninety-five patients three died as the result of the operation—two from pneumonia in the fourth week after operation, and one a few days after operation: in this case there is reason to believe that the tumour was complicated with cancer of the body of the uterus.

Six of the women were submitted to myomectomy during pregnancy, and in four cases the operation was undertaken under the impression that the tumour was an ovarian cyst which had undergone axial rotation. These cases occurred in the days before I recognized that ‘red degeneration’ of fibroids complicating pregnancy caused them to be painful and tender (see p. 78). In one patient this complication was clearly recognized. In the sixth patient the tumour was regarded by some capable gynæcologists, who examined her, as a tubal pregnancy complicating a gravid uterus. Five of these patients went to term and were delivered of living children. The sixth miscarried two months after the myomectomy.

Of the ninety-two successful myomectomies, five subsequently became pregnant and had living children, but in each instance the fibroids were subserous. I have not known a patient to become pregnant after abdominal myomectomy for a submucous fibroid, large or small. In calculating the probability of pregnancy from these statistics it must be mentioned that the patients fall into three categories:—

1. Forty women were in the child-bearing period of life and married; many of them were multiparæ.

2. Twenty were single women and probably capable of bearing children in a favouring environment.

3. The remainder were spinsters or barren wives.

A significant feature in the after-history of ten of these women is the fact that some years later other fibroids grew in the uterus, and hysterectomy became a necessity on account of menorrhagia in seven of them; of these, two died from the operation, which was difficult and tedious. One patient was operated upon two years after the myomectomy, and had borne a child in the interval, and the other seven years.

The last fact to mention is that one patient, from whom a submucous fibroid had been enucleated from the cavity of the uterus (hysterotomy), died four years later from cancer arising in the body of the uterus (see p. 51).

Olshausen has recently considered this question, and indicates that the chief objection to the abdominal enucleation of uterine fibroids is its high mortality.

He furnishes a table of 563 cases, collected from twelve operators, including himself; of these 59 patients died, representing a mortality of 10.5 per cent. Olshausen, in the years 1900–5, performed enucleation on 124 patients with 14 deaths. Eight of the patients subsequently came under notice with recrudescence of fibroids. Christopher Martin has performed abdominal myomectomy 73 times with 1 death.

The question of myomectomy, when fibroids complicate pregnancy and labour, or give trouble after labour, is considered in detail on p. 78.

References to Reports of Hysterectomy performed for Fibroids in Malformed Uteri

CHAPTER VI

ON THE RELATIVE VALUE OF TOTAL AND SUBTOTAL HYSTERECTOMY

The great success which followed the use of the short ligature in ovariotomy induced several surgeons to apply the same principle to the cervical pedicle when removing the uterus for fibroids. The result was dismal failure. Matters improved somewhat after Koeberlé introduced the serre-nœud, and this continued the safest method until 1892. In the meantime antisepsis had begun to take effect in pelvic surgery, and attempts were made by Bardenheuer (1881), Polk, and other surgeons to avoid the dangerous difficulties connected with the treatment of the stump by removing the cervix as well as the uterus (total hysterectomy), and they attained an encouraging measure of success. Nevertheless, other surgeons (Goffe, Milton, Heywood Smith, and Stimson) felt that the enucleation of the cervix was not always necessary, and sought to find a way of avoiding it. The credit of solving this difficulty fell to Baer of Philadelphia (1892), for he showed that it is dangerous to constrict the neck of the uterus with ligatures, it is only necessary to secure the arteries.

Baer’s method of supravaginal hysterectomy, or, as it is now commonly termed, the subtotal operation, soon supplanted the total method of Bardenheuer. The publication of Baer’s paper had great consequences; it came at a time when the attention of gynæcologists was centred on improvements in hysterectomy. The method was promptly tested and adopted in London. The effects of this improvement in technique in a few years revolutionized the surgical treatment of uterine fibroids, as the statistical results set forth on p. 44 amply prove.

The great advantage of Baer’s method is its simplicity and safety; but there is a disposition on the part of a few surgeons to prefer the total operation, mainly on the ground that the cervical stump left after subtotal hysterectomy is liable to become attacked by cancer.

As far as I can ascertain, Dr. M. Mann, of Buffalo, was the first to draw attention to the occurrence of cancer in the neck of the uterus after the body of the organ had been removed. He stated in 1893 that he ‘removed an ovarian tumour and the body of the uterus, by accident, along with it; the cervix was left’. The patient recovered. ‘Six months afterwards cancer developed in the cervix, from which she died.’

When cases of cancer supposed to arise in the stump left after subtotal hysterectomy come to be critically analysed, they fall into four groups:—

1. The disease existed in the neck of the uterus at the time of the primary operation, but was overlooked.

2. Cancer attacked the cervical stump subsequent to subtotal hysterectomy.

3. The fibroid which necessitated the hysterectomy was really a sarcomatous tumour of the uterus.

4. The suspected growth on the cervix is not malignant, but a granuloma.

Each of these postulates requires separate consideration.

Many observations have been published which show beyond dispute that surgeons have performed subtotal hysterectomy in ignorance that the cervix was already cancerous, and the hæmorrhages of which the patients complained before the operation were due as much to the cancer in the neck of the uterus as to the fibroids. This should serve as a warning that, in cases where the surgeon contemplates performing a subtotal hysterectomy, he should carefully examine the cervix beforehand; at the time of the operation he should also critically examine the cut surface of the cervix, and if it be in the least suspicious he should remove the neck of the uterus. It is necessary to remember that cancer attacks any part of the cervical endometrium, therefore an early cancerous ulcer in the middle of the cervix will run a great chance of being missed by a surgeon who is content with a subtotal hysterectomy.

It is certain that cancer does occasionally attack a cervical stump left after subtotal hysterectomy at such an interval after the operation as to make it certain that the cancer did not exist at the time of the operation. Such a case occurred in my practice. I performed subtotal hysterectomy in 1901 on a woman forty-two years of age, mother of one child; eighteen months later there was a cancerous ulcer on the cervix; the whole of the cervical stump was promptly removed and the nature of the disease established microscopically. In 1908 the patient was in excellent health.

In another case under my care I performed total hysterectomy for fibroids in ignorance that the patient had cancer of the cervix. Some months after the operation cancer recurred in the vaginal vault and scar of the hysterectomy; the neck of the uterus had been preserved by the doctor, and on examination the cancer was found. In this instance, although total hysterectomy was performed, it had no effect in staying the course of the disease.

It is necessary to utter a caution in regard to the occurrence of cancer of the cervix after subtotal hysterectomy. I removed a uterus containing a large globular submucous fibroid from a barren married woman forty-five years of age. Six years later she came under my observation with a large granulating and bleeding growth on the cervix uteri. I had no doubt from the naked-eye characters that this was a primary carcinoma, although it surprised me to find it there, especially as the woman had never been pregnant. On my urgent representations she allowed me to remove the cervix. On microscopic examination the suspected cancer turned out to be a granuloma. Two years later the patient was in good health. Polk has recorded a similar experience. These facts show that caution is necessary in accepting reports of cancer of the uterine stump after subtotal hysterectomy.

Cancer of the body of the uterus and fibroids. In deciding between total and subtotal hysterectomy for fibroids the probable presence of cancer requires consideration in another aspect. Although uterine fibroids do not predispose to cancer of the neck of the uterus, many writers in recent years have expressed their suspicions that the presence of a submucous fibroid favours the development of cancer in the corporeal endometrium. Piquand, in 1905, drew attention to this matter and emphasized what other observers had pointed out, namely, that a submucous fibroid is often associated with changes in the mucous membrane of the uterus, which not only causes excessive bleeding, but sets up inflammatory conditions giving rise to leucorrhœa, salpingitis, pyosalpinx, and morbid changes in the endometrium, rendering it susceptible to cancer. His statistics support his conclusions, for they represent that in one thousand women with fibroids fifteen will probably have cancer of the body of the uterus. My own observations support this opinion. This complication is found most frequently between the fiftieth and the sixtieth year of life. If we narrow the ages of the patient and exhibit the liability in its most emphatic form it would run thus: that in patients submitted to hysterectomy for fibroids over the age of fifty years, about ten per cent of them will have cancer of the corporeal endometrium.

In 1906 I looked through the case-notes of five hundred patients who had been submitted to operation for uterine fibroids under my care. Of these sixty-three patients had attained the age of fifty years and upwards. Among these sixty-three women there were eight cases of cancer of the corporeal endometrium; the nature of the disease in each case was verified by careful microscopic examination.

Consequently, in performing subtotal hysterectomy for fibroids in women of fifty years and upwards, the surgeon should have the uterus opened immediately after its removal and assure himself that the endometrium is free from cancer. If there be any suspicion in this direction he should remove the cervix.

Sarcoma. The most insidious danger which besets the surgeon in dealing with fibroids of the uterus is the occurrence of an encapsuled sarcoma in the guise of an innocent fibroid. I have for some years dropped the name of myoma for these common uterine tumours, preferring to apply the term fibroid in a generic sense to all encapsuled tumours of the uterus. Every histological condition is found in them, from the hard calcified body looking like a block of coral to a soft diffluent collection of œdematous connective tissue, and tumours composed of tissue indistinguishable from spindle-celled sarcomata.

I have elsewhere recorded briefly a case in which I removed the uterus from a woman forty years of age, which contained a fibroid as big as an ostrich’s egg. On section it appeared to be a moderately firm fibroid, with its tissue whorled as is usual in hard fibroids and enclosed in a complete capsule. Some months later the patient complained of pain, and on examination a hard mass occupied the floor of the pelvis; a portion of this was excised and submitted to three competent histologists, who reported the growth to be an innocent fibroid. The patient died fourteen months after the primary operation with her pelvis filled with recurrent growth. The tumour was a spindle-celled sarcoma.

Much has been written regarding the sarcomatous degeneration of fibroids. In this matter I have maintained an attitude of active scepticism. My experience amounts to this: the case which I have briefly described is the only example in a thousand cases of hysterectomy in which an encapsuled sarcoma in the guise of an innocent fibroid has come under my observation, therefore I come to the conclusion that it is an uncommon event, and on turning to the literature of the subject it will be found that unequivocal examples are few.

From a careful study of the question, I have formed the opinion that if a woman with fibroids and concomitant cancer of the neck of the uterus seeks advice on account of hæmorrhage, and the cancer has attacked the vaginal portion of the cervix, the nature of the case will be appreciated. The cases likely to be overlooked are those where the cancer is situated somewhat higher in the cervical canal than usual, so that it is not easily detected by the examining finger, and so low in the cervix that the disease is not exposed when the body of the uterus is amputated in the course of a subtotal hysterectomy. A knowledge of this, as well as the fact that cancer of the cervix is almost exclusively a disease of women who had been pregnant, should make the surgeon particularly careful in performing subtotal hysterectomy for fibroids in women who have had children, in order to assure himself that it is not cancerous.

In addition to the liability of the stump left after subtotal hysterectomy to become cancerous, it is stated by some surgeons that the patient is more liable to intestinal obstruction than after the total operation. This objection is easily met, because a perusal of their writings shows clearly that they do not perform the operation properly. In subtotal hysterectomy, performed according to Baer’s instructions, there should be no stump projecting from the pelvic floor, but merely a thin seam underlying the base of the bladder.

I have dealt in detail with these two methods of hysterectomy, because when it can be performed subtotal hysterectomy is, as a rule, a simpler operation than total hysterectomy. There are conditions in which it is imperative to remove the whole of the cervix, especially when the canal is very patulous and perhaps septic; when it is large and hard, or large and spongy; and especially if there is the least suspicion of malignancy in the cervix, or in the body of the uterus.

It must, however, be borne in mind that cancer has attacked the scar left in the vagina after a total hysterectomy (Quénu). At the present time the subtotal method enjoys the greatest favour in London, but it must be remembered that where the total operation is most indicated, it is often difficult of execution. Although I have a decided preference for the subtotal operation, especially in spinsters and barren wives, I have performed total hysterectomy in more than 200 patients, so that I am in no way blind to its merits.

Cancer of the uterus after bilateral ovariotomy. The uterus, after complete removal of both ovaries, is not only a useless organ, but it may become attacked by cancer. Blacker reported a case in which a woman, thirty-nine years of age, underwent bilateral oöphorectomy for a uterine fibroid: eight years later cancer attacked the neck of the uterus and destroyed the patient.

In 1902 I performed abdominal myomectomy on a woman forty-seven years of age, and removed both ovaries and Fallopian tubes; the latter contained pus. Four years later this patient came under observation with extensive cancer of the cervix.

Fig. 16. An Adenomyomatous Uterus. The organ is shown in sagittal section in order to display the great thickening of the endometrium. From a spinster aged 43 years. Two-thirds size.

In 1901 a patient had bilateral ovariotomy performed; five years later she complained of severe uterine hæmorrhage. I removed the uterus by the abdominal route (total hysterectomy). The corporeal endometrium was cancerous throughout. The patient survived the operation six months. Similar cases have been recorded by Martin, Butler-Smythe, and Playfair.

Adenomyoma of the Uterus. This disease has not received adequate recognition at the hands of British surgeons, yet it is a condition which occasionally causes much doubt in the surgeon’s mind in the course of hysterectomy. This adenomyomatous change affects the endometrium and is, in some cases, associated with interstitial and subserous fibroids: it causes often great enlargement of the uterus, and under these conditions the fundus can be felt high in the hypogastrium. The patients are often profoundly anæmic as the result of long-continued menorrhagia. The physical and clinical signs of the disease are those present in patients with a large degenerating submucous fibroid. Indeed the surgeon often removes the uterus under this impression, and, after the operation is completed, when he divides the uterus expecting to see the usual encapsuled tumour, to his surprise finds a uterus with greatly thickened walls (Fig. 16).

Fig. 17. An Adenomyomatous and Tuberculous Uterus. The uterus is opened by a vertical incision in its posterior wall. The anterior wall is occupied by a mass of tuberculous adenomatous tissue. The patient, a spinster aged 46, was in excellent health four years after the operation. Two-thirds size.

Microscopically the adventitious material is made of irregular tracts of endometrium containing glands and strands of unstriped muscle tissue.

It is important for the surgeon to recognize these cases because, contrary to the rule with simple uterine fibroids, these adenomyomatous uteri are often adherent to the adjacent bowel and to the bladder: in connexion with this fact several observers have pointed out that uteri affected with this disease are often associated with inflammatory affections of the Fallopian tubes, and there are good reasons for the belief that the adenomyomatous change has a microbic origin. In this connexion it is worth mention that adenomyomatous uteri are sometimes tuberculous (Fig. 17). Some examples of this disease have been mistaken for cancer of ‘the body of the uterus’.

In this disease subtotal hysterectomy gives admirable results, immediate and remote.

THE FATE AND VALUE OF BELATED OVARIES

The only improvement of any importance made in Baer’s operation of subtotal hysterectomy concerns the ovaries. These Baer removed with the Fallopian tubes, but in 1897 I advocated, at the Obstetrical Society, London, that they were of great value to the patient, and pointed out that their conservation, when healthy, spared the patient the annoyance of that curious vaso-motor phenomenon, known to women as ‘flushings’, which is the only obtrusive sign of the menopause.

It is now admitted by those surgeons in London who have had much experience of hysterectomy for fibroids, that the immediate results of preserving at least one healthy ovary in this operation are admirable, especially in women under forty years of age, for the retention of an ovary is of striking value ‘in warding off the severity of an artificial menopause’ (Crewdson Thomas).

Although I have left one or both ovaries in the performance of abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids in more than 300 patients, in only two instances have I found anything detrimental in the practice. In these two patients it was necessary to remove one of the ovaries. Since 1906 I have modified the method by leaving only one ovary, even when both were healthy, and find that the immediate good consequences of the operation are in no way impaired. There is reason to believe that whatever good effects follow the practice of leaving a belated ovary (that is, an ovary divorced from the uterus and left in the pelvis), they are temporary, for in the course of a few years the ovarian tissue disappears and the patients experience the usual symptoms of the menopause. It is possible that the rate of atrophy of the secreting tissue of a belated ovary depends on the age at which a patient is submitted to hysterectomy.

In 1898 I performed subtotal hysterectomy on a woman, thirty-one years of age, for fibroids, conserving the right ovary. Nine years later (1907) I operated again for intestinal obstruction, and found this ovary healthy and functional, for a ripe corpus luteum was visible on its surface. Even a portion of an ovary, if it contain follicles, will maintain menstruation.

In performing abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids, there are three points which require consideration in relation to the subsequent comfort of the patient, and they depend mainly on the conservation of a healthy ovary. These three points relate to: (a) the patient’s comfort in securing freedom from flushings; (b) if she be married, her marital relations; and (c) if single, her nubility.

In regard to marital relations in women with a belated ovary, nothing trustworthy is forthcoming, but I believe the retention of an ovary is an additional factor in promoting domestic bliss. The question of nubility is interesting; I am able to state that women who have had subtotal hysterectomy performed, with conservation of one ovary, have married and lived happily with their husbands; and I am of opinion that the preservation of the vaginal segment of the neck of the uterus is an important factor, as it leaves the vagina intact, and though such women are sterile, they are certainly nubile.

Without overstating the case it may be said that a belated ovary is a very precious possession to a woman under forty years of age, whether she be married or single.

In regard to the fate of such ovaries, in the present condition of our knowledge it may be stated that:—

In a woman under the fortieth year of life, a belated ovary remains active and discharges ova.

Fig. 18. Uterus with the Decidua in Situ. The parts of the uterus occupied by the decidua represent the menstrual area of the uterus.

An ovary belated after the fortieth year of life atrophies, and menopause symptoms will often ensue in the course of a few months after the operation. The retention of an ovary minimizes the menopause disturbances, and they are never so acute and prominent under these conditions as they are when an acute menopause is induced by the sudden and complete removal of all ovarian tissue. Some experienced observers maintain that an ovary is a valuable possession to any woman who menstruates, even at the age of fifty years, the persistence of menstruation being obtrusive evidence that this gland is functional. Experimental evidence, obtained from rabbits, proves that the removal of the whole uterus has no deterrent effect on ovulation, and it does not prevent the occurrence of œstrus and ovulation at periodically recurring intervals. There is no necessity to appeal to experiments on animals in this matter, as clinical observations on women are most eloquent in proclaiming the great value of a conserved ovary when the uterus is removed on account of troublesome and dangerous fibroids.

In reference to the value of ovarian tissue after hysterectomy for fibroids, attention should be drawn to a modification of this operation known as the Abel-Zweifel method, by which a small segment of the menstrual area of the uterus is left as well as one or both ovaries: this permits menstruation to continue in a subdued form.

Doran has particularly studied this method and practised it, but I cannot express any opinion as to its value, never having had the courage to perform it.

My aim in performing hysterectomy for fibroids is to abolish as completely as possible the menstrual area of the uterus (Fig. 18), and up to the present my efforts have been successful, and I have no complaint from any patient that this disagreeable phenomenon has manifested itself, although I have been at great pains by my own exertions, as well as by the kind efforts of those who have been associated with me in my hospital work, to keep in touch with women who have been so unlucky as to require such a serious operation as the removal of the uterus.

References to the History of Hysterectomy for Fibroids

Literature Relating to Cancer of the Cervical Stump after Subtotal Hysterectomy

References in Relation to the Occurrence of Cancer in the Uterus after Bilateral Ovariotomy

References concerning the Value of Belated Ovaries

CHAPTER VII

HYSTERECTOMY FOR PRIMARY CARCINOMA OF THE UTERUS

The modern operation of hysterectomy as a radical measure for the relief of cancer of the uterus has a somewhat curious history. In 1878 Freund extirpated the uterus for carcinoma of the cervix through an abdominal incision; his method was quickly practised by other surgeons, but the great mortality of the operation soon caused it to be abandoned for the vaginal route advocated by Czerny and supported by Schroeder, Olshausen, Martin, and Péan amongst other gynæcologists. This method, however, has been abandoned, for, although the operative mortality of vaginal hysterectomy for cancer of the uterus has fallen to 5 per cent., the operation has disappointed expectation, as it can only be employed on early cases of the disease with anything like a hopeful prospect of curing the patient, and, even when performed on carefully selected cases, the risks of recurrence are so great and often follow so rapidly on the operation that surgeons have lost confidence in the method. This has induced gynæcologists to turn their attention again to the abdominal route. The cancerous uterus is now subjected to what is known as ‘radical abdominal hysterectomy’, a method with which the names of Ries, Mackenrodt, Dührssen, and Wertheim are closely associated.

Hysterectomy for cancer of the cervix. The greatest obstacle to the success of vaginal hysterectomy in the radical treatment of cancer of the neck of the uterus is the limitations which the anatomical environment imposes on the surgeon, for as soon as the disease overruns the cervix it implicates the vagina, the bladder, the vesical portions of the ureters, and the rectum. The ‘radical abdominal operation’ enables the operator not only to remove the uterus and its neck, but the broad ligament, the ovaries, Fallopian tubes, infected lymph glands, and the infected para-uterine connective tissue, and by affording the operator free access to the floor of the pelvis the proceedings may be carried out with a free exposure of the operating field, thus allowing important structures like the ureters to be dissected out of implicated tissue. Indeed it has even been recommended, in cases where the bladder has been extensively involved, to resect this viscus and engraft the ureters into the rectum.

The primary object of these extensive operations is not only to facilitate the wide removal of connective tissue around the cervix in early cases of carcinoma, but also to allow the advantages of operative treatment to be extended to patients to whom it would be otherwise absolutely barred.

One great danger which attends operations for the removal of cancerous organs is what may be called ‘post-operative cancer-infection’, that is, in the course of the operation tracts of connective tissue are opened up and become soiled with cells, which engraft themselves on this tissue and on the peritoneum, and give rise to extensive masses of cancer which are often described as recurrent cancer. This accident often causes the patient to die quicker than if the primary cancer had been left untouched. In the radical operation it is one of the essentials to avoid soiling the wound with cancer cells. This rule, of course, applies to operations for cancer in any part of the body.

Operation. The steps of the radical abdominal operation advocated by Wertheim are as follows:—

As a preliminary, the cancerous cervix is treated by scraping, cauterizing, and disinfectants. It is an advantage to carry out these measures a few days before the main operation. The Trendelenburg position is indispensable and the abdomen is opened by a free median subumbilical incision. After isolating the intestines with dabs, the ureters are exposed by incising the posterior layer of the broad ligament; they are then traced to the parametrium. It is necessary to avoid too free a disturbance of their vascular network or they will slough.

The bladder is then separated from the uterus. The infundibulo-pelvic, the broad, and the round ligaments are ligatured and divided. The particular order in which they are dealt with is not a matter of consequence. The uterine vessels are secured in the following manner:—The index finger is pushed along the ureter through the parametrium towards the bladder, until the tip of the finger appears there; the vessels are then raised on the finger, which covers the ureter so as to protect it whilst the vessels are ligatured and divided. As soon as the uterine vessels are divided the vesical segments of the ureters are exposed, cleaned if necessary, and separated from the cancerous cervix.

The posterior layer of the peritoneum is divided and the rectum separated from the vagina: at this stage the uterus is sufficiently isolated from the surrounding structures to allow of removal. This is effected in the following way:—

The two layers of the parametrium are taken off as close as possible to the pelvic wall, and the vagina closed with bent clamps and divided below them: the clamps are used to prevent soiling the operation-area with cancerous cells.

In order to extirpate the lymph glands, the peritoneum is divided upwards and the iliac vessels laid bare, and every enlarged gland from the division of the aorta to the obturator foramen is removed and the oozing vessels carefully secured.

The wound is treated in the following way:—

The cavity created by the removal of the uterus is filled in loosely with iodoform gauze, which extends to the vulva. An exact closing of the peritoneal cavity over this gauze is effected by the sewing up of the anterior and posterior flaps of peritoneum. The final step is the closure of the abdominal incision.

After-treatment. This is relatively simple. The strips of iodoform gauze are removed through the vagina in from five to ten days successively. The patient gets up on the fifteenth day. The bladder requires very careful attention, as it is usually paralysed for some days.

Mortality. The immediate mortality of these extensive abdominal operations for cancer of the neck of the uterus is very high, more than 20%, but recent statistics (1909) show that this death-rate is being considerably improved with increased experience on the part of the operators.1

Dangers. The chief risks of the operation are sepsis, cancer-infection, and injury to the ureters.

The ureters have proved a fertile source of trouble because they are deliberately exposed in the course of the operation, and they are sometimes accidentally divided. It is not uncommon to find a ureter completely blocked by cancer, and occasionally the ureter, after being bared by the operator, undergoes necrosis a few days later.

Wertheim points out that in some instances ureteral fistulæ due to necrosis may be induced to close by the application of iodine or sulphate of copper. It is, however, unfortunately true that many patients with ureteral fistulæ after the radical operation have been obliged to undergo nephrectomy (see p. 112).

The ‘radical operation’ for cancer of the neck of the uterus is on its trial in Great Britain. The operative mortality is very high, and no reliable returns concerning the remote results are at present available.

Hysterectomy for cancer of the body of the uterus. The most satisfactory method of dealing with cancer arising in the corporeal endometrium consists in performing total abdominal hysterectomy (see p. 40), removing not only the uterus and its neck, but both ovaries, Fallopian tubes, mesometria, and any enlarged lymph glands that are detected. In the course of the operation the surgeon should avoid any undue handling of the uterus, and, in withdrawing it from the pelvis, care should be taken not to infect the operation area with any fluid or semi-fluid stuff which is liable to escape from the cervical canal.

Fig. 19. Cancer of the Uterus. Coronal section through a uterus affected with primary cancer of the corporeal endometrium. The mass measured 10 centimetres transversely and 12 centimetres vertically. Removed by abdominal hysterectomy. Two-thirds size.

There is a rare variety of cancer of the corporeal endometrium, namely, that which attacks small atrophic uteri. These small uteri may sometimes be extirpated by the vagina, but often the narrowness of the vagina in aged spinsters compels the surgeon to resort to the abdominal route.

Cancer of the body of the uterus occasionally causes such enlargement of this organ as to render its removal by the vaginal route difficult as well as undesirable. When this form of cancer is complicated with fibroids, as a rule, vaginal hysterectomy is impracticable.

Cancer of the body of the uterus is more frequent in spinsters and barren wives than in multiparæ; for this reason the cancer often assumes the massive form, because the cervical canal being narrow, pathogenic micro-organisms do not obtain such free ingress as in the case of women with a patulous canal. In some instances the cancerous mass will expand the uterine cavity and lead to thinning of the walls as in Fig. 19.

Clinically, cancer of the corporeal endometrium is a more insidious disease than cancer of the neck of the uterus, but since its frequent association with fibroids has been recognized (see p. 52) mainly as a consequence of the vulgarization of hysterectomy, many cases are detected fairly early and with improved results for the patients.

Mortality. The risk to life in abdominal hysterectomy for cancer of the body of the uterus is somewhat greater than after removal of the uterus for fibroids. This is due to the fact that when the cancer ulcerates and sloughs, the risk of sepsis is therefore increased; this also makes convalescence slower.

The remote results vary greatly; these depend in a large measure on the extent of the disease at the time of the operation. When the cancerous mass is compact, as in Fig. 19, good results may be expected. When the growth has perforated the uterine wall and small bud-like processes project on the serous surface, the disease may be expected to recur rapidly in the abdomen. Cancer of the uterus remains an opprobrium to operative gynæcology.

CHAPTER VIII

OPERATIONS FOR DISPLACEMENT OF THE UTERUS

HYSTEROPEXY (VENTRO-SUSPENSION AND VENTRO-FIXATION OF THE UTERUS)

Hysteropexy is a term applied to an operation for fixing the uterus, by means of sutures, to the anterior abdominal wall.

This procedure was advocated as a definite surgical operation for displacements of the uterus independently by Olshausen and Kelly (1886).

The operation when employed for severe retroflexion of the uterus is now known as ventro-suspension of the uterus; when carried out for prolapse it is termed ventro-fixation of the uterus. When care is taken in the selection of patients, hysteropexy is an operation which is followed by satisfactory consequences.

VENTRO-SUSPENSION FOR RETROFLEXION OF THE UTERUS

The preliminary preparation and the instruments required as those used for a simple cœliotomy (see p. 5).

Operation. The patient is placed in the Trendelenburg position, and the abdomen is opened as for ovariotomy, except that the incision is shorter; the operator then determines with his fingers the position and condition of the body of the uterus. If it be free, it is then straightened, and the condition of the ovaries and the tubes ascertained.

In many patients, where retroflexion of the uterus is accompanied by pain, the distress is often due to a prolapsed ovary, incarcerated in the pelvis by the retroflexed fundus of the uterus; in another set of cases the retroflexion is produced by a tumour in the ovary, such as a small dermoid, but more often the body of the uterus is drawn backwards by a small fibroid in the fundus of the organ. In these conditions an operation embarked upon as a simple hysteropexy may become an oöphorectomy, an ovariotomy, or a myomectomy, according to the necessity of the case. When the enlargement of the ovaries is due to œdema from incarceration, they should be left, as the swelling will quickly subside when the misplacement of the uterus is corrected.

The uterus is fixed to the abdominal wall in the following way:—

A curved needle armed with a silk thread (No. 4) which has been carefully boiled is passed through the aponeurosis and adjacent peritoneum on one edge of the wound, then through the anterior surface of the uterus near the fundus, and finally through the peritoneum and aponeurosis on the opposite edge of the incision; when this suture is tightened, it will be found to draw the uterus to the anterior abdominal wall, and at the same time approximate the edges of the wound. Two sutures should be introduced. In patients who have had children care should be taken not to pass the needle so deeply into the uterus that the suture traverses the superficial parts of the endometrium and becomes infected: this will lead to a suture sinus. The rest of the wound is then closed according to the method described on p. 9.

VENTRO-FIXATION FOR PROLAPSE OF THE UTERUS

Operation. When hysteropexy is needed for a large, bulky, and prolapsed uterus, the steps of the operation are the same as for retroflexion, but it is necessary to introduce a greater number of retaining sutures. Further, as the uterus tends to slip downward into the vagina, it is an advantage, as soon as the fundus of the uterus is drawn into the wound, to transfix it with a stout suture, in order that the assistant may use it as a tether to keep the uterus in position whilst the surgeon introduces the main sutures. In some cases, where the uterus is very large, it may be requisite to employ four, five, or even six sutures to secure it to the abdominal wall.

In all cases of hysteropexy the uterus is of necessity sutured to the lower angle of the wound, and is therefore in close relation to the bladder. It facilitates the operation to introduce the lowest sutures first and then gradually work up to the fundus. The wound is then closed and dressed as described for cœliotomy.

After-treatment. This is conducted on the same lines as after ovariotomy.

Risks. Hysteropexy, when performed by surgeons experienced in pelvic surgery, is such a simple operation that it should have no mortality. At the Chelsea Hospital for Women, from 1904 to 1906, both years inclusive, this operation was performed on 190 patients, all of whom recovered from the operation.

Many of these operations were complicated with oöphorectomy, ovariotomy, or myomectomy. A wide study of operation returns show that hysteropexy is not absolutely free from risk, as deaths from sepsis, lung complication, and intestinal obstruction have been reported.

Fig. 20. The Fundus of a Uterus. A long fibrous cord arises from the fundus as a result of hysteropexy performed nearly five years previously for inveterate retroflexion. Full size.

The remote consequences of hysteropexy are of interest. When the uterus has been enlarged by previous pregnancy its fundus can be brought without undue strain into contact with the anterior abdominal wall, so that when it is secured by sutures there is little or no strain on them. When hysteropexy is performed on spinsters or barren married women in whom the uterus is small, there is, in many instances, a strain on the sutures. The effect of this strain is twofold. When the uterus is attached to the abdominal wall by an aseptic suture, lymph is exuded from the surfaces of the peritoneum in contact with the retaining sutures. This effused lymph organizes into a tenacious tissue, and the strain of the uterus, when the operation is performed on virgins, or the weight of the organ when it is done for prolapse, will cause the sutures to erode their way out of the uterine wall, but the plastic material effused around the silk threads slowly stretches as the uterus descends into the pelvis, producing a tendon-like structure which may be called the ‘artificial fundal ligament’ (Fig. 20).

In patients in whom the length of the uterus allows its fundus to come in contact with the abdominal wall without strain, the union may be so secure that the woman may pass through one or more pregnancies successfully without disturbing the union, or even stretching it. This I have proved in twelve instances where some subsequent trouble such as appendicitis, gall-stones, ovariotomy, cancer of the colon, or the like has led to a repeated cœliotomy, and has afforded me an opportunity of examining the condition of the uterus.

In one remarkable case where a small uterus had been securely fixed by its fundus to the abdominal wall by means of ten thick sutures (the operation had been performed in a cottage hospital in Yorkshire), the patient complained of persistent pain, and was sent to me on this account. I found the sigmoid flexure of the colon caught in one of the sutures, which accounted for some of the woman’s trouble, but the uterus was so firmly fixed to the abdominal wall and had been so dragged upon that it had become a rounded sausage-like organ. Its removal was followed by immediate relief. Among rare accidents which have followed this simple operation is tetanus when catgut and wallaby tendon has been used for the retaining sutures (see p. 107).

References

CHAPTER IX

OPERATIONS UPON THE UTERUS DURING PREGNANCY,
PARTURIENCY, AND PUERPERY

Pregnancy is apt to be complicated with tumours growing in the walls of the uterus, e.g. fibroids, cancer of the neck of the uterus, or cysts and tumours of one or both ovaries; morbid conditions of the Fallopian tubes, e.g. pyosalpinx, tubal pregnancy; tumours and cysts in the broad ligament; displaced viscera occupying the pelvis, e.g. the spleen or the kidney; tumours arising in the pelvic bones, e.g. osteoma, enchondroma, or sarcoma; and echinococcus cysts and colonies growing in the omentum, but occupying the pelvis, or arising in the pelvic tissues.

This is a formidable list, and any one of them may so complicate the pregnancy that it may be necessary to remove the tumour, and in some instances to perform Cæsarean section, or even hysterectomy.

CÆSAREAN SECTION

This signifies the removal of a fœtus and placenta from the uterus through an incision involving the abdominal and uterine walls.

This operation is required when the outlet of the pelvis is too narrow to permit the transit of a viable child, as in rickets and osteomalacia; when the vagina is malformed; when the pelvic outlet is narrowed by tumours growing from the pelvic wall. Occasionally the passage of a fœtus is barred by tumours growing from the uterus, especially a large cervix fibroid, or a fibroid growing from the lower segment of the uterine wall. An ovarian cyst, especially a dermoid incarcerated by the uterus, may render this operation necessary. The rarest causes are cancer of the neck of the uterus and cancer of the rectum.

This operation is advocated by some obstetricians in certain cases of eclampsia and placenta prævia.

Operation. When it is known some days beforehand that the patient will be submitted to this operation, she should be prepared as for ovariotomy. Often it happens that the operation is undertaken after labour has commenced, and in circumstances which make time very precious. Even then the abdomen, pubes, and vulva can be shaved and thoroughly washed with warm soap and water, and lightly rubbed with ether and cotton wool.

The instruments required are those given on p. 5.

When the patient is under the influence of ether and the bladder emptied with the catheter, an incision is made in the linea alba from the umbilicus to the pubes. The belly-wall of a woman advanced in pregnancy is very thin, and, unless the surgeon be cautious, the knife will come in contact with the uterus before he is aware of it.

The uterus lies just under the incision, and the operator ascertains that it lies centrally (often the uterus is somewhat rotated to the right or left), and then makes a free incision through the uterine wall and extracts the fœtus and placenta; as the uterus contracts, he slips his left hand behind the fundus, and grasps the uterus near the cervix, and effectually controls the bleeding. The assistant passes a large warm flat dab into the belly to restrain the intestines and omentum. The uterine cavity is sponged out, and the finger passed through the os uteri into the vagina in order to ensure a free passage for blood and serum.

The incision in the uterine wall may be closed either by a double or a single set of silk sutures. When two layers of sutures are employed, the first set involve the mucous and adjacent half of the muscular layer[;] these sutures should be fairly close together, for they not only bring the parts into apposition, but they restrain the bleeding. A second row of silk sutures is now inserted, including the serous coat and adjacent half of the muscular layer. These threads should not be tied too tightly, as the tissues of a gravid uterus are soft and easily tear. In closing the uterine incision the surgeon should not spend time vainly in endeavouring to stanch the bleeding from the edges of the incision; this is best effected by dexterously inserting and securing the sutures.

The recesses of the pelvis are carefully cleaned by gentle sponging, and the parietal incision is closed as after ovariotomy.

The dressing varies with the fancy of the operator; a piece of sterilized gauze and a square of Gamgee tissue held in position by a many-tail of flannel firmly applied is all that is necessary.

Although Cæsarean section is one of the simplest operations that can be performed on the pelvic organs, it formerly had a very high mortality; but since the principles of asepsis have been thoroughly established the death-rate from this operation has been so reduced that it varies from 4 to 10% according to the skill of the operator; indeed the results are so good in the hands of careful and skilful men that on recovery from the operation the patient may reconceive, and there are conditions in which the patient is desirous to produce more children with the knowledge that they must be extricated by Cæsarean section. There are many instances on record of women being submitted to this operation twice, and some thrice; and at least two patients have undergone this operation four times (Sinclair). In view of the fact that a woman after being submitted to Cæsarean section may reconceive, it has been urged (especially by Sinclair) that the anterior surface of the uterus should be attached to the abdominal wall in such a manner as to promote the formation of adhesions, so that when the patient needs to be submitted to ‘repeated Cæsarean section’, the adhesions resulting from the primary operation will so shut off the operation area from the general peritoneal cavity, that the uterus may be opened and the fœtus and placenta extracted by a practically extraperitoneal operation. This question has been discussed in an able and comprehensive paper by Wallace, and also by Sinclair.

There is one great danger which women run by becoming pregnant after Cæsarean section, namely, rupture of the uterus. Some cases illustrating this accident have been reported. This accident has been discussed by Wallace.

Although a few writers, particularly Wallace, consider that all Cæsarean sections should be performed with a view to ulterior pregnancy, this is not the opinion of the majority, for there are many women who, having passed such an ordeal once, have no desire to do so again, and ask for something to be done to prevent its possibility in the future. This involves what is known as ‘sterilization’.

Fig. 21. Portion of Ovary and Fallopian Tube. The parts were removed a year after a supposed complete oöphorectomy had been performed to induce an artificial menopause. This fragment of ovary maintained menstruation regularly. Full size.

Sterilization after Cæsarean section. When Cæsarean section is performed the uterus is preserved, and after convalescence the woman is in a position to reconceive. There are conditions in which she is most anxious to produce more children even with the risk of having them extracted by this operation. On the other hand, some women, knowing the risks, ask that steps may be taken to prevent a recurrence of what they consider a catastrophe. This appears a simple matter, but it is not so in reality, for in many instances in which the operator had been under the impression that he had effected this by ligature of both Fallopian tubes in continuity, he has been surprised when the woman has again come under his notice well advanced in pregnancy.

This has happened even when each tube has been ligatured in two places and a segment of the tube exsected between the ligatures. Bilateral oöphorectomy has been recommended, but on the whole, when the patient and her husband wish that further risks should be avoided, the wisest plan is to perform subtotal hysterectomy instead of Cæsarean section; moreover it is a difficult matter to completely remove healthy ovaries, and it needs only a small portion to maintain menstruation (Fig. 21).

The whole of this matter is one that is really a question of ethics, and the extreme views are represented by Wallace and Sinclair in the papers to which reference has already been made. The difficulty of effectively sterilizing women by simply relying on bilateral oöphorectomy is shown by the well-established cases in which patients have successfully conceived after bilateral ovariotomy and oöphorectomy.

The youngest patient on whom Cæsarean section has been carried out with success to the mother and child was thirteen years of age. The operation was performed by Gache in Buenos Ayres on account of smallness of the pelvis. Women have recovered after a self-inflicted Cæsarean section.

References

CÆSAREAN SECTION IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER

It occasionally happens that a woman in whom the course of pregnancy is nearly complete dies suddenly from disease, such as hæmoptysis, hæmatemesis, cardiac trouble, or uterine hæmorrhage in the preliminary stage of labour; or is killed by accident. In some such circumstance attempts are sometimes made to rescue the unborn child, by performing Cæsarean section. It is true that such efforts are rarely attended with success, but in cases where death is very sudden and the surroundings such as to enable the operation to be performed without delay, the child may be extracted from the uterus and survive. Successful cases of this kind are published from time to time.

In order to show how necessary it is to act promptly the following case may be mentioned:—

A woman in the eighth month of pregnancy was found to be suffering from cancer of the neck of the uterus. The child was alive. I decided to perform hysterectomy. The uterus was exposed through a free incision in the abdominal wall and quickly detached from its cervix. The uterus with the fœtus inside was handed to an assistant, who quickly extracted the child. Although the time which elapsed from the complete etherization of the mother until the extraction of the child from the uterus was 2½ minutes, it required the display of some energy to induce the child to breathe. This is the first record as far as I know of a child being delivered alive from a uterus detached from its mother. The woman died on the fourth day after the operation, and the child on the fourteenth.

Möglich had a successful case. A patient aged forty-one years, with placenta prævia, died from hæmorrhage, and an asphyxiated fœtus was promptly extracted by cœliotomy. Prolonged efforts at artificial respiration were successful, and the child was well five weeks later (see also Sippel).

References

OVARIOTOMY AND HYSTERECTOMY DURING PREGNANCY AND IN LABOUR

Although the directions in surgical writings are clearly laid down concerning the course to be pursued when pregnancy and labour are complicated by an ovarian tumour, the difficulty which often confronts the operator when he is face to face with the actual case is uncertainty regarding the nature of the tumour. Although he may begin the operation under the impression that he has to deal with an ovarian tumour, it may turn out to be a fibroid, a tumour of the pelvic wall, a misplaced spleen or kidney, a tubal pregnancy, a sequestered extra-uterine fœtus (lithopædion), or a calcified hydatid cyst. Thus an expected ovariotomy may terminate as a Cæsarean section, or as a hysterectomy. In many cases the surgeon must rely on his own judgment and experience, but it may be useful to furnish some directions which may help him. It may be useful also to mention what unexpected conditions are sometimes found. Thus an experienced gynæcologist like Prof. Olshausen once removed a gravid uterus under the impression that it contained a cystic fibroid which would obstruct delivery. When it was examined after removal, the suspected fibroid proved to be a large sacral teratoma growing from the fœtus.

Ovarian tumours and pregnancy. Before the fourth month of pregnancy, single and double ovariotomy is attended with a low rate of mortality, and the risk of disturbing the pregnancy is small. The removal of a parovarian cyst during pregnancy is more liable to be followed by abortion than single or double ovariotomy. After the fourth month the risk is that of an ordinary ovariotomy, but the chances of abortion increase with each month. It is also a fact that ovariotomy may be safely carried out between the eighth and ninth months of gestation without precipitating labour, even when the tumour is incarcerated in the pelvis.

In many cases in which ovariotomy is urgently indicated during pregnancy, the pedicle will be found twisted.

When the tumour is situated above the uterus there is rarely any difficulty in dealing with it, as the pedicle is usually long, but it will require extra care in applying the ligature, as the tissues, being unusually vascular and soft, are easily lacerated. Occasionally the tumour lies in the pelvis below the uterus: in this case the surgeon carefully insinuates his hand between the pelvic wall and the uterus, and then gently withdraws the tumour from its incarcerated position.

Cases in which Ovariotomy has been performed near the End of the Ninth Month of Pregnancy

In operating for ovarian cysts complicating pregnancy, the surgeon should, after removing the cyst, carefully examine the other ovary, for twin tumours may be present. Berry Hart performed ovariotomy on a woman in the fifth month of pregnancy, and removed a dermoid of the left ovary ‘enlarged to about the size of a man’s brain by recent hæmorrhage due to the twisting of a pedicle’. The patient died on the ninth day. A frozen section was made of the pelvis, and on inspecting the cut surface the right ovary, converted into a dermoid, was found incarcerated by the gravid uterus.

Many cases have been published in which ovariotomy has been undertaken during the late months of pregnancy, or shortly after delivery, and the surgeons have been astonished to find both ovaries converted into tumours; in very many instances they were dermoids. Cases of this kind have been recorded by Knowsley Thornton, F. Page, Cullingworth, Berry Hart, Malcolm Campbell, and others, including myself. These observations demonstrate that a woman may have both her ovaries occupied by dermoids, yet the glands are capable of yielding fertilizable ova.

Campbell relates that Brewis, in performing an ovariotomy during pregnancy, attempted to conserve some ovarian tissue by resecting the dermoids; this proved impracticable, and both ovaries were excised. Miss Ivens records a case in which a woman thirty-five years of age was five months pregnant and required ovariotomy on account of an incarcerated ovarian dermoid. In the course of the operation both ovaries were found to contain dermoids. A tumour was successfully excised from each. Pregnancy continued undisturbed.

References

Ovariotomy during labour. When an ovarian tumour is discovered during labour and it impedes delivery, ovariotomy should be performed.

In this condition it follows that the tumour lies in the pelvis; when the tumour is tightly impacted by the contracting uterus it has happened that the surgeon has been unable to reach the tumour until he has emptied the uterus by Cæsarean section. Several operators have had this difficulty, myself among them. I have added a list of reported cases drawn from British sources. For this I hope not to be accused of what is sometimes perhaps facetiously called ‘insularity’. The enormous population of these islands should furnish material enough to settle the principles of treatment which should govern these terrible cases of obstructed labour.

One of the commonest conditions met with in ovariotomy during pregnancy and labour is to find that the cyst has undergone axial rotation and twisted its pedicle. The technique in these circumstances is very simple.

Ovariotomy for Tumours obstructing Labour at Term

¹ In these cases it was necessary to perform Cæsarean section in order to extract the tumour from the pelvis.

Fig. 22. A Uterus distorted by Fibroids. It contains a fœtus of four months’ development. Removed by the subtotal operation from a primigravida, aged 42. Half size.

Ovariotomy during the puerperium. It occasionally happens that a woman may go through her pregnancy and labour with an unrecognized ovarian tumour in her abdomen; during the puerperal period it may cause symptoms which lead to its recognition, because in the course of the labour the cyst may burst, undergo axial rotation, or suppurate. When a puerperal woman possesses an ovarian tumour which gives rise to unfavourable signs, ovariotomy should be resorted to without delay. The operation in these circumstances is comparatively simple, and such adhesions as may be present are usually recent and easily overcome.

Single and even double ovariotomy can be performed during puerpery without in any way interfering with involution of the uterus or lactation.

In 1896 I was able to collect fifteen recorded cases of double ovariotomy during pregnancy, and sixteen in which ovariotomy was performed during the puerperium, or shortly after abortion. Since this date McKerron has collected the statistics relating to the whole question of pregnancy and ovarian tumours in a very comprehensive manner.

References

Fibroids and pregnancy. In a large number of instances in which operations have been undertaken when fibroids complicate pregnancy, they have been performed on an erroneous diagnosis. The tumours when small and placed laterally simulate ovarian cysts; when large and lying high in the abdomen they have been mistaken for renal tumours, and when low in the pelvis they have been regarded as incarcerated ovarian cysts. The variety of fibroid most likely to lead to operation, under the impression that it is an ovarian cyst, is an interstitial fibroid which becomes painful in consequence of undergoing red degeneration. The difficulty which faces the surgeon in this condition is to decide on a safe course.

When the tumour is not likely to cause difficulty it may be wise to close the abdomen. If the tumour is pedunculated and incarcerated, he may be able to extract the tumour and ligature the pedicle without disturbing the pregnancy; a big fibroid invading the broad ligament may be enucleated; a large cervix fibroid will render delivery impossible, and will necessitate hysterectomy.

A study of many recorded cases in which hysterectomy has been performed on account of fibroids complicating pregnancy shows that the operation had been undertaken on account of a great increase in the size of the tumours, the concurrent pregnancy not being discovered until the parts were examined after removal.

Hysterectomy may be necessary at any time during pregnancy; after labour has begun; and during puerpery on account of fibroids. During pregnancy it is a straightforward operation, the subtotal operation being preferable. When it is needed during puerpery it is for septic complications, and there is no greater difficulty in performing hysterectomy then than during pregnancy, but the risk to the patient from sepsis is much greater: therefore total hysterectomy with drainage is advisable.

Fibroids have many times been enucleated from the gravid uterus and the pregnancy has gone successfully to term.

When pregnancy complicated with fibroids goes to term and the tumour occupies the neck or the lower segment of the uterus so as to offer an impassable barrier to the passage of the fœtus, abdominal hysterectomy is a necessity.

Red Degeneration. Among the new things which the surgical treatment of uterine fibroids has brought to light is a knowledge of that change to which these tumours are liable, known as ‘red degeneration’.

This increase in our knowledge of the pathology of fibroids is extremely useful in diagnosis, for red degeneration is especially liable to occur in fibroids lodged in a pregnant uterus, and, as I pointed out in 1904, it has the effect of rendering them painful.

One of the most striking features of a uterine fibroid is its insensitiveness, and equally remarkable is its painfulness and tenderness when in a state of red degeneration, but these signs are only exhibited by such fibroids when associated with pregnancy.

Red degeneration, even in an extreme degree, in fibroids occupying the walls of a non-gravid uterus is, as a rule, painless. It is also curious that a gravid uterus may contain four or five fibroids, the size of large potatoes, in its walls, yet only one will exhibit this red degeneration and become acutely painful, whilst its companions remain as insensitive as apples. In the early stages of this change the fibroid exhibits the colour in streaks, but as the pregnancy advances it permeates the whole tumour. Occasionally in the mid-period of pregnancy this necrotic change may be so extreme that the central part (sometimes the whole) of the tumour is reduced to a red pulp.

Fig. 23. A Gravid Uterus In Sagittal Section.

The woman miscarried at the seventh month: delivery was obstructed by a cervical fibroid. The parts were removed by total hysterectomy. The small fibroid is in the condition of red degeneration (Museum, R. College of Surgeons). Half size.

The suddenness with which this pain comes on may be illustrated briefly by the following case:—A primigravida, aged 30, two months pregnant, was seized with sudden pain during a railway journey. Her condition became so alarming that she left the train at an intermediate station and placed herself under the care of a doctor whom she knew. A large, tender, and increasing swelling was found in the abdomen. The doctor regarded the patient’s trouble as being due to rupture of a tubal pregnancy. He asked me to see the patient, and I found a large swelling on the right side of the abdomen reaching as high as the liver. I considered that some change had taken place in this tumour consequent on the pregnancy: it was also probable that it might be an ovarian cyst which had twisted its pedicle. The swelling was very tender. On opening the abdomen the tumour proved to be a large subserous fibroid undergoing red degeneration. The gravid uterus contained several fibroids of the interstitial variety: it was removed. These fibroids exhibited the red change in streaks.

It is a curious and noteworthy fact that many of the operations tabulated on pp. 81 and 82 were undertaken on an erroneous diagnosis. In some the acute pain and tenderness of which the patients complained led the surgeons to believe that the troubles were due to an ovarian cyst which had twisted its pedicle, or to the bursting (or abortion) of a gravid Fallopian tube.

Practitioners and obstetricians are now becoming familiar with the fact that when a pregnant woman, who has also fibroids in the uterus, complains of sudden acute pain, it may be due to one of the fibroids undergoing red degeneration.

The cause of this change is unknown. Lorrain Smith and Fletcher Shaw, after an examination of four specimens, three of which were associated with pregnancy, believe that the change is due to thrombosis of the vessels of the fibroid. In two tumours they isolated micro-organisms, e.g. staphylococci in one and diplococci in another: the patients with these tumours exhibited toxic symptoms.

In my early investigations of this disease I often took the tumours to the bacteriological laboratory with the hope of finding some micro-organism which would account for the degeneration. The results were so persistently negative that the search was abandoned. Since learning that Smith and Shaw had found micro-organisms in two cases I had the next specimen which came to hand examined, and it happened to be the fibroid obtained from the acute case described on p. 79. From the softened parts Mr. Somerville Hastings succeeded in obtaining staphylococcus pyogenes aureus in pure culture.

The views here expressed in regard to the red degeneration of fibroids are founded on an examination of thirty-four recent examples.

References

Cases of Hysterectomy performed on Patients in Labour in which the Obstruction was due to Fibroids

The aim of the surgeon is to save the life of the child as well as that of the mother. To this end, when the operation is carried out and the uterus exposed the child is extracted by Cæsarean section. Then in the majority of cases total or subtotal hysterectomy is performed. This is sometimes clumsily termed Cæsarean hysterectomy. In some instances the operator has been content merely to perform Cæsarean section in the hope that the patient may wish to reconceive.

In order to afford some notion of the frequency with which fibroids cause trouble to pregnant and parturient women, I have collected thirty-six cases which have been reported to the London Obstetrical Society from 1900 to 1908 (both years inclusive), and arranged them in the subjoined tables: they show in an unmistakable way that pregnant women with fibroids do often require aid from surgery, and that such efforts are rewarded with success. There is no condition which simplifies hysterectomy so much as pregnancy.

A Table of Cases in which Abdominal Hysterectomy was performed for Pregnancy complicated with Fibroids

These cases are recorded in the Transactions of the Obstetrical Society, 1900–8, both years inclusive.

Table of Cases in which Abdominal Myomectomy was performed during Pregnancy

From the Transactions of the Obstetrical Society, 1900–8, both years inclusive.

Pregnancy complicated with cancer of the cervix. When a pregnant woman comes under observation with cancer of the neck of the uterus in an operative stage in the early months, hysterectomy should be performed: in some instances the cervix has been amputated without disturbing the pregnancy.

In the later stages good consequences follow the induction of labour and the immediate performance of hysterectomy. Surprising as it may seem, a uterus immediately after labour can be safely extirpated through the vagina.

When the cancer is so advanced as to be inoperable, the pregnancy should be allowed to go to term, and if the cancerous mass offer an impassable barrier to delivery, Cæsarean section should be performed. This operation has been found necessary to extract a dead fœtus.

Most surgeons in dealing with operable cases of this complication of pregnancy remove the parts through the vagina, because in the abdominal operation the septic cervix is withdrawn through the abdomen; this makes it extremely difficult to avoid soiling the pelvic peritoneum.

Concurrent uterine and tubal pregnancy. This condition may require operation in three different circumstances:—

1. Tubal and uterine pregnancy occur simultaneously and the complication is recognized in the early months. Here the operation would be that of oöphorectomy, and the uterine pregnancy may continue undisturbed to term.

2. Intra- and extra-uterine gestation with living fœtuses runs concurrently to term. This is an exceedingly dangerous, though a rare, combination. The table on p. 35 shows how deadly a compound pregnancy is to the mother: it sets forth also the fate of the children.

3. Uterine pregnancy is complicated by the presence of a quiescent (sequestered) extra-uterine fœtus. Many cases have been reported in which a fœtus of this character has occupied the pelvis, yet the woman conceived and the child was safely delivered at term; but a sequestered fœtus may constitute an impassable barrier and require removal (Operations for Compound Pregnancy, see p. 33).

Pregnancy complicated by tumours growing from the pelvic walls. When the pelvis is occupied by a chondroma, osteoma, or a sarcoma growing from the innominate bones or the sacrum, or from the fascia of the pelvis and displacing the gravid uterus, the proper course is to perform subtotal hysterectomy. If the obstruction is not detected until the child is viable, and there is no especial call for urgency, interference should be postponed until near term; the child can then be saved by Cæsarean section, and the uterus removed.

The operation in such circumstances calls for the exercise of judgment, but it is rarely difficult. Among interesting tumours complicating labour and obstructing delivery, special mention may be made of dermoids and teratomata lying in the hollow of the sacrum. Skutsch has collected the chief German records.

Echinococcus cysts (hydatids) have grown in the pelvic connective tissue and obstructed labour. Cases have been reported by Knowsley Thornton, Küstner, Blacker, and others.

References

OPERATIONS FOR PUERPERAL SEPSIS (METASTATIC BACTERIÆMIA)

Acute septic infection (puerperal) of the uterus, too frequent even in this antiseptic epoch, is a desperate condition, but attempts have been made to deal with it by two methods—either hysterectomy, or the ligature and excision of the thrombosed ovarian veins.

So far as hysterectomy for this condition is concerned, it may be stated that it has been tried, but with no encouraging measure of success; it is a very desperate proceeding, and has been occasionally successful by the abdominal, as well as by the vaginal route. It is possible that vaginal hysterectomy may now and then be a wise operation in acute puerperal infection, but better results have been attained by ligature of the thrombosed pelvic veins, and by drainage of the pelvic cavity. Some interesting operations, with brilliant results, have been published by Trendelenburg, Michels, Cuff, Bumm, and others.

In some cases of puerperal pyæmia a careful examination of the patient’s abdomen has enabled the surgeon to feel the thrombosed ovarian vein, and in others the vein has been exposed by an incision running from the tip of the eleventh rib to the spine of the pubes, parallel with Poupart’s ligament. The muscles are divided and the peritoneum reached; this is reflected until the thrombosed ovarian vein is exposed and separated from the ureter. About half an inch below its junction with the renal vein or the vena cava, as the case may be, it is securely ligatured and divided; the vein is then slit up and the clot turned out. The operation, when carried out in this way, is extraperitoneal. In some instances successful ligature of the thrombosed ovarian vein has been effected by the usual median incision into the peritoneal cavity.

The object of ligaturing the thrombosed ovarian vein is to prevent the pathogenic micro-organisms in the clot from entering the circulation. Bumm reported five cases in which he ligatured these veins. Three of the patients recovered.

It is more than probable that if operative interference be carried out on thrombosed ovarian veins before the condition of the patients become desperate, more of them might be rescued. Success has been attained even in desperate conditions; for example, Friedemann ligatured these veins in a woman whose general condition was not only bad, but who also had extensive bed-sores. She recovered.

T. G. Stevens reported the details concerning a woman who died, of acute septicæmia, eleven days after a subtotal hysterectomy (by Galabin) for fibroids. The right ovarian vein was thrombosed from the ligature in the pelvis to its entrance into the vena cava, and he isolated from the clot and produced in cultures the bacillus pyocyaneus. He also stated that ‘the vein could have been easily dissected out, and possibly the fatal result might have been averted’.

This operation rests on sound principles, for the ligature of the ovarian veins prevents the septic blood entering the circulation, thereby setting up, among other things, endocarditis and pulmonary embolism.

The great difficulty in dealing with this condition is the selection of suitable cases. Experience teaches that acute cases are unsuitable. The best results have been attained in the chronic forms of the disease where the thrombosis was limited. There is great uncertainty in a given case as to the extent of the thrombosis and the number of veins implicated. As has already been mentioned, there are two routes for gaining access to the thrombosed vessels—the extraperitoneal and the intraperitoneal. I prefer the intraperitoneal route (cœliotomy), for it enables the surgeon to deal with the vessels, iliac or ovarian, of both sides, as well as allowing a thorough examination of the pelvic organs, and it permits the drainage of any collection of serum or pus found in the pelvis. From a study of the reported cases it is clear that the best results are obtained by cœliotomy. The ligature of thrombosed ovarian veins in chronic puerperal pyæmia promises good results for the future, but it needs further experience to teach us the kind of case in which it is likely to be successful.

References

CHAPTER X

OPERATIONS FOR INJURIES OF THE UTERUS

Injuries of the uterus fall into six groups:—

1. Gynæcological injuries.

2. Obstetric injuries.

3. Injuries to the pregnant uterus.

4. Injuries to the pregnant uterus in the course of abdominal operations.

5. Bullet-wounds of the pregnant uterus.

6. Stab-wounds of the pregnant uterus.

Gynæcological injuries. The simplest and certainly the commonest accident is perforation of the uterus with a sound, dilator, or forceps in the operation of curetting. Many cases are known in which the uterus has been perforated by clean instruments of this class and the patients have suffered no inconvenience.

On the other hand, when the sound or the uterus is septic, perforation of the uterus has been followed by a rapidly fatal peritonitis; indeed, some of these injuries may prove as lethal as a snake-bite.

Occasionally very serious consequences follow simple perforations by dilators and curettes; this has induced some gynæcologists to urge that if, in the course of dilatation and curettage of the uterus, a rupture or perforation of the uterine wall occurs, it is better to perform a cœliotomy and assure oneself of the safety of the patient than to hope that no untoward result will ensue.

This advice is too sweeping. When the perforating instrument is clean, and there is little or no bleeding, the case may be left to itself; if untoward signs arise, cœliotomy should be performed. Sometimes a pelvic abscess occurs as a sequence to the accident, and will require evacuation through the vaginal fornix, or, perhaps, by means of an incision in the flank. Verco found a piece of a curette, 2¾ inches long, in an abscess cavity behind the uterus. The patient had been curetted two weeks previously.

A perforation, or a rent in the uterine wall, in the course of curetting, is a serious accident when the operator is unaware that such has happened, and proceeds to flush out the uterine cavity with poisonous antiseptic solutions, especially perchloride of mercury. Cases are known in which, under these conditions, the woman has died in the course of a few hours.

Injuries, in the course of instrumentation of the uterus, are not always mere perforations; some are wide rents—and this is an especial danger in removing sessile submucous fibroids (vaginal myomectomy). A serious complication of tears or rents of the uterine wall, whether the uterus is gravid or non-gravid, is extrusion or prolapse of the intestine. It is also remarkable that in several reported cases the practitioner has mistaken the intestines for ‘secundines’, even in unimpregnated uteri, and has withdrawn them, and even cut lengths of intestine away, before recognizing his error.

In one case of this kind, where a practitioner had withdrawn and removed several feet of intestine through a rent in the course of a curettage, I performed cœliotomy, closed the hole in the uterus, joined the cut ends of the bowel with sutures, resected the mesentery belonging to the removed bowel, and thus saved the patient’s life. In another case, where a practitioner had torn the uterus during curettage and intestine appeared in the vagina, there was such free bleeding that I found it prudent to perform subtotal hysterectomy. This patient also recovered. Successful operations of this kind have also been performed by Werelius and Nixon Jones.

Palmer Dudley relates that on one occasion, in curetting a recently gravid uterus, he tore the posterior wall without being aware of it, and withdrew eight inches of intestine, thinking it to be secundines; he recognized the error, and pushed the intestine back through the opening in the uterine wall. The patient recovered, and subsequently had two successful pregnancies.

These cases show how impossible it is to recommend any hard and fast lines of treatment. Much depends on the circumstances of the case, the character of the injury, and above all on the experience and resourcefulness of the practitioner.

Ruptures or tears of the uterus in the process of instrumental dilatation or curettage are by no means rare, and they have a high mortality. Jakob of Munich collected 141 instances of such injuries, and of these twenty-three died chiefly from septic peritonitis. Among these injuries seventy-three were inflicted with the curette, nineteen with the sound, fourteen with forceps (Ausräumungszangen), and six were due to flushing catheters.

Obstetric injuries. The uterus is liable, during labour, to be torn, as a result of its own expulsive efforts, especially when the transit of the fœtus is hindered or obstructed by narrowness of the pelvic outlet, tumours, or undue size of the child. This form of injury is called spontaneous rupture, to distinguish it from the rupture due to midwifery implements. The uterus is frequently torn in the obstetric manœuvre known as ‘turning’.

The literature relating to this accident is abundant, and the reports issued from lying-in institutions deal with extensive figures, but unfortunately the reporters are not in harmony on the principles of treatment.

There are three methods of dealing with rupture of the uterus:—

1. Treating the patient conservatively, which means at most lightly packing the part with antiseptic gauze.

2. Performing cœliotomy and stitching up the rent in the uterus.

3. Hysterectomy, preferably by the abdominal route, as this enables the peritoneal cavity to be cleared of clot.

The only point in which there is any semblance of agreement among obstetricians is this: in cases of complete rupture, in which the fœtus and membranes are extruded from the uterus into the belly, cœliotomy is clearly indicated.

Admirable reports have been published by Walla, Klien, Ivanoff, and Munro Kerr.

Klien’s is a critical and very valuable study, based upon 347 cases of rupture of the uterus published in the preceding twenty years. Of these cases 149 were operated upon, with a mortality of 44 per cent.; 198 were not operated upon, 96 recovered and 102 died—a mortality of 52 per cent. Among the unoperated cases some were not treated in any way, and in these the mortality was 73 per cent., whilst in those treated by drainage, plugging and irrigation, the mortality was only 37.5 per cent.

When there is dangerous bleeding Klien advises immediate operation. Lacerations of the vagina make the prognosis unfavourable, and especially injury of the bladder.

During the last ten years hysterectomy has been so much improved and the technique so simplified, that the operative treatment of complete rupture of the gravid uterus will be more frequently undertaken in the future than it has in the past, and with every prospect of reducing the heavy bill of mortality at present associated with this grave accident.

Donaldson (1908) reports a remarkable case in which the uterus ruptured during forceps delivery; 12½ feet of small intestine, detached from the mesentery, were extruded with the fœtus. Cœliotomy was performed, the detached intestine cut away, and the proximal end of the bowel anastomosed into the cæcum. A long rent in the posterior wall of the uterus was closed with sutures. The patient survived the accident ten days, and died from sepsis; ‘the entire uterus seemed to be a sloughing mass.’ Donaldson states that, had he removed the uterus at the time he operated on the intestine, the patient would probably have survived.

Injuries to the pregnant uterus. Some of the most remarkable injuries inflicted on the gravid uterus are the consequences of attempts to induce what is technically called criminal abortion, especially when the abortion is self-induced. Kehr has recorded an example of a desperate effort of this kind:—A widow, twenty-nine years of age, when in the fifth month of an illicit pregnancy, fired a revolver bullet into the uterus through the anterior abdominal wall. Cœliotomy was performed, and the wound in the uterus closed by suture. The woman aborted on the fourteenth day, but recovered.

A gravid uterus in the later months of pregnancy is a big organ, and, like the abdominal viscera generally, may be severely damaged by blows, kicks from horses or brutal men, butts from animals, such as a calf or a goat, falls upon the belly, or a fall downstairs, or the woman may be run over. The treatment to be adopted in these conditions varies widely with the circumstances. As a general rule it may be stated that the most satisfactory mode of treatment is cœliotomy; this permits a thorough examination of the organ, and facilitates removal of effused blood. In the late stages of pregnancy accidents of this kind entail Cæsarean section.

Among the most curious injuries of this group are those known as horn-rips: these are cases in which the pregnant uterus is torn open by the horn of a bull. An interesting collection of cases illustrating this accident has been made by Robert P. Harris. Even after very severe injuries, in some of which the intestines protruded, women have recovered, and several children survived this terrible mode of delivery.

Injury to a gravid uterus in the course of an abdominal operation. In spite of every care it has happened on many occasions that a pregnant uterus has been mistaken for an ovarian cyst, the abdomen has been opened and a trocar plunged into the uterus. In some instances a uterus in which the pregnancy has advanced as far as the sixth month has been removed under the impression that it was a large ovarian cyst, and this accident has happened with a pregnant uterus greatly enlarged in the somewhat rare condition known as hydramnios. A pregnant uterus is also liable to be stabbed by an ovariotomy trocar when the condition is complicated with unilateral or bilateral ovarian cysts. The gravid uterus has very thin walls and, occasionally, resembles so very closely an ovarian cyst as to deceive an inexperienced operator.

When the surgeon finds that he has injured a pregnant uterus in the course of an abdominal operation three courses are open to him, each of which has been practised with success by surgeons of renown:—

1. Sew up the incision in the uterus.

2. Perform Cæsarean section.

3. Remove the uterus (subtotal hysterectomy).

Several cases have been reported in which injury to a gravid uterus during ovariotomy has terminated fatally, especially when the surgeon followed the plan of sewing up the wound in the uterus.

A careful consideration of the reported cases indicates that the best results follow for the patient when the surgeon performs Cæsarean section, as the following record shows:—

Sir Spencer Wells had removed a large, multilocular ovarian cyst from the left side of the patient, when he felt what was supposed to be a cyst of the right ovary. When tapped it was found to be a gravid uterus, in which pregnancy had advanced to near the fifth month. Cæsarean section was at once performed and the patient recovered.

Injuries of this kind are rarely likely to happen now, for the clumsy ovariotomy trocar is passing out of use.

Fig. 24. Diagram representing a Gunshot Injury of the Uterus. The woman was aged 28, and in the seventh month of pregnancy. The bullet was extracted from under the skin on the left side, four inches behind the anterior superior spine of the ilium. The line A B represents the track of the bullet. (British Medical Journal, 1896, vol. i, p. 332.)

Bullet-wounds of the pregnant uterus. These are very rare, and, like rupture of the uterus, liable to be complicated with injury of the intestines; it is for this reason that the canon of surgery applicable to penetrating wounds of the abdomen should be practised in these circumstances, and the patient submitted to cœliotomy.

When the gravid uterus is penetrated by a bullet there may be little bleeding on account of the contracting property of the uterine tissue. In some instances amniotic fluid stained with blood escapes. In operating, the anterior as well as the posterior surface of the uterus should be carefully examined in order to determine if the bullet passed through this organ. In some instances the fœtus has been injured by the bullet. When free bleeding follows a bullet-wound of the gravid uterus the hæmorrhage is usually due to damage of blood-vessels connected with the intestines.

The best method of dealing with the uterus in such conditions is undetermined, but a study of the few reported cases indicates that the best results follow cœliotomy, with suture of the perforated intestine and the hole or holes in the uterus. The patients usually abort. In Prichard’s case (Fig. 24) hysterectomy was performed, but the patient died.

Even in some apparently desperate cases good consequences follow the conservative operation, as the following reports demonstrate:—

In a case under the care of Albarran, the patient was aged nineteen years and in the fifth month of pregnancy when shot. There were four perforations of the small intestines, and the mesenteric artery was wounded. He resected 20 centimetres of small intestine. A loop of umbilical cord protruded through the bullet-hole in the uterus; this was resected and the ends of the cord tied. The patient miscarried a few hours after the operation, but recovered.

Baudet reported a case in which there were four perforations of the small intestine: he sutured the wounds in the uterus and the holes in the bowel; the woman aborted some hours after the operation, but recovered.

In a case under Robinson’s care the bullet entered the uterus and penetrated the right shoulder of the fœtus. The patient, who was in the eighth month of pregnancy, quickly miscarried. The bullet was found in the débris. The patient not only recovered, but reconceived, and gave birth to another child in the following year.

Stab-wound of the pregnant uterus. Examples of this kind of injury are rare, but some of the recorded cases are remarkable. Guelliot has recorded the details of a case in which a pregnant woman was stabbed in the buttock. The knife passed through the great sciatic notch, and penetrated the uterus and the child’s skull. The woman miscarried of a dead fœtus next day. The great sciatic nerve was injured, but the woman recovered, though she remained lame.

Steele recorded an example where a woman, six and a half months pregnant, stabbed herself in the lower abdomen with a knife; she was taken to a hospital and kept at rest until the wound healed. Six weeks after the injury the woman was delivered of a live male child, normally developed, but much of the child’s large and small intestines protruded through an opening in the abdomen. The jejunum was completely severed as a result of the stab. Steele attempted to deal with this extraordinary lesion surgically, but the child died a few hours later.

References

CHAPTER XI

THE AFTER-TREATMENT. RISKS AND SEQUELÆ OF
ABDOMINAL GYNÆCOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

The performance of ovariotomy, hysterectomy, and allied procedures is attended by several risks, immediate and remote, which may spoil the best-planned and most carefully executed operation. Some of these may be avoided by careful attention to the details embraced by the phrase ‘after-treatment’.

THE AFTER-TREATMENT OF ABDOMINAL OPERATIONS

The patient is returned to the bed with gentleness and usually lies on her back, but many anæsthetists prefer to turn the patient on one or other side for an hour, until there is a fair return to consciousness. The patient then lies on her back and a pillow is placed under the knees. Hot-water bottles should not be placed in the bed with the patient until she is completely conscious, and they are rarely needed. The healing of blisters caused by hot-water bottles is a slow process. During the first twelve hours the patient complains of pain, thirst, and vomiting.

The thirst is in a measure relieved by administering six or eight ounces of normal saline solution by the rectum an hour after the patient returns to bed, and repeating it in three or four hours. The patient may wash her mouth out frequently with water, hot or cold, according to her fancy, and if there is no vomiting she may swallow a little hot water from time to time. As a rule, it is better for her to abstain from swallowing anything for the first eighteen hours; the best way to avoid vomiting after an anæsthetic is to keep the stomach empty.

There is always some pain after an abdominal operation, partly due to tension on the sutures, and colic. The injection of normal saline solution (a teaspoonful of salt to a pint of water) by the rectum often controls this, but occasionally the pain is so severe that it is necessary to give a quarter of a grain of morphine hypodermically, or in a suppository, about twelve hours after the operation, in order to procure sleep. The routine use of morphine after these operations is injudicious and rarely necessary.

At the end of twenty-four hours small quantities of barley-water, tea, or milk and water are given, and if retained they may be taken in increasing quantities. On the fourth day an enema is given to clear the bowel, and then the patient will take fish, chicken, &c., and soon get on to convalescent diet.

When vomiting is very troublesome, it is sometimes necessary to keep a patient on rectal feeding two or three days.

When there is abdominal distension, this may be relieved by the passage of a rectal tube at intervals of three hours, and if this fails a turpentine enema should be given.

Patients should always be encouraged to empty their bladder naturally: many are unable to pass water whilst lying on their backs. In these cases the urine is drawn from the bladder by a carefully sterilized glass catheter. Before passing the catheter, the nurse carefully wipes away the mucus from the urethral orifice. Cleanliness and care with the catheter must be enforced: cystitis causes much misery. During the first few days the quantity of urine passed by the patient is measured, and recorded in the notebook.

The temperature should be observed every four hours during the first week and recorded. The first record after the operation is usually subnormal, and in twelve hours it rises to normal or beyond. During the first twenty hours it may rise to 100° without causing alarm; beyond this, if accompanied by a rapid pulse, an anxious face, and distended belly, it will cause anxiety to the surgeon. A temperature of 101° or 102° unaccompanied by other unfavourable symptoms is not a cause for alarm, unless maintained.

The state of the pulse is a valuable guide and more trustworthy than the temperature. When the pulse remains steady and full there is no cause for alarm. When it increases in frequency to 120 or 130 beats per minute, and is thin and thready, then there is danger, even if the temperature is only slightly raised.

On the seventh or eighth day the sutures will require removal. Occasionally a hæmatoma forms in the wound; and in patients in whom the operation has been performed for septic conditions, stitch abscesses will occur. In septic cases the sutures require to remain a few days longer, to allow the wound to unite more securely.

When oöphorectomy, ovariotomy, or hysterectomy is followed by a non-febrile convalescence the patient may be allowed to leave her bed on the fourteenth day, and at the end of another week she may return to her home or go to the seaside according to circumstances. When the wound has healed by primary union, and this is usual where aseptic methods have been followed and buried sutures employed for the fascial and muscular layer, an abdominal belt is unnecessary. When suppuration has taken place in the wound and healing has been retarded, especially in a patient in whom operations have been performed for septic conditions, it is a useful precaution to advise her to wear a well-made belt. This is more necessary for women who have to get their living by hard work.

COMPLICATIONS OF ABDOMINAL GYNÆCOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

Metrostaxis. After ovariotomy and oöphorectomy, unilateral or bilateral, blood sometimes escapes from the uterus in the course of the first week, and simulates menstruation: it sometimes occurs within forty-eight hours of the operation, and is usually ushered in with a rise of temperature (100°-101°).

Bed-sores. These sometimes give trouble when operations are performed on elderly or enfeebled patients, especially when they are thin and have incontinence of urine. With due watchfulness and care on the part of the nurse a bed-sore ought rarely to occur.

Post-anæsthetic paralysis. Paralysis following operations on the pelvic organs occurs in connexion with the upper and lower limbs; it is an awkward and avoidable complication. Some of the simplest cases are those which arise from the pressure upon an individual nerve, such as the ulnar, circumflex, or musculo-spiral, due to the arm coming in contact with the sharp edge of a metal operating table. When the patient’s legs are flexed across the sharp edge of the table and fixed, as in the Trendelenburg position, during a long operation, the external popliteal nerve is liable to be pressed upon by the condyles of the femur. This will lead to paralysis of the muscles supplied by it. In some instances the paralysis is bilateral. Paralyses of this kind are identical with what are known as ‘sleeping palsies’. The more serious paralyses are directly due to the Trendelenburg position, in which there is a great tendency for the arms to be displaced over the head and hang downwards or abducted, as this position causes the clavicle to compress the nerves of the brachial plexus upon the first rib, or the scalenus anticus muscle, and perhaps, as some observers believe, between the clavicle and the transverse processes of the fifth and sixth cervical vertebræ.

Most of the writers on this subject attribute the paralysis more particularly to drawing the head to one side when the patient lies in the Trendelenburg position with abducted upper limbs, as it tends to stretch the lower cervical nerves of the opposite side, especially the fifth. This stretching is probably a greater factor in producing paralysis than pressure.

The form of paralysis produced in this way is that known as Erb’s palsy, and the muscles particularly concerned are the deltoid, brachialis anticus, biceps, and the supinator longus. Sometimes the spinati are involved. Occasionally the paralysis is bilateral. A case has been reported in which there was a total lesion of the brachial plexus, including the muscles of the shoulder girdle.

The following facts serve to show that stretching rather than pressure is responsible for this class of paralyses. A patient had undergone a vaginal operation in the crutch position, when the assistant drew her along the table by means of his fingers hooked in the axillæ over the folds of the pectoral muscles: next morning both upper limbs were found to be paralysed, and they remained in this condition many weeks.

In some of the lighter forms the paralysis passes off in a few days, but cases are known in which it has persisted for many months, and as it renders the limb useless for a time it is a serious matter.

Halstead refers to a case of bilateral peroneal paralysis following salpingectomy in the Trendelenburg posture which disabled a patient for six months.

On the whole prognosis is favourable, and recovery the rule.

Büdinger has described a case in which the upper limb was paralysed after an abdominal operation. The patient died some weeks later, and a clot of blood was found pressing on the surface of the brain at a spot corresponding to the arm centre.

References

Giving way of the wound. After cœliotomy the patient runs a risk of the wound being burst open, and this accident seems particularly liable to happen in cases where catgut has been selected for the suture material. Accidents of this kind belong to two categories:—

1. Many cases occur in patients from violent coughing or vomiting, as the straining causes the knots of the sutures to slip.

2. In feeble patients, and those debilitated by anæmia, diabetes, &c., and especially in septic wounds, the union of the edges of the incision unite very slowly; if the sutures are taken out on the eighth day, as is the custom, the wound is liable to burst asunder. This accident is prone to occur in patients whose abdominal wall has been greatly distended by a large tumour, and especially by pregnancy. On the whole the accident is more prone to complicate Cæsarean section than any other operation on the pelvic organs, and cases have been reported in which there has been a repetition of the accident. The largest collection of case-reports in which the wound has burst open after cœliotomy has been made by Madelung; a perusal of his paper shows that it is an accident with a high mortality. It is a fact that cases of this kind are rarely published, and from inquiries I find that it is of common occurrence. It has certainly diminished since surgeons have widely adopted the method of securing the wound with buried suture, but this is not always a preventative. The complication which makes the accident so unfortunate for the patient is the protrusion of the intestines.

In dealing with this condition the surgeon carefully and gently cleans the extruded intestines and omentum with sterilized water, returns them into the abdomen, and resutures the wound.

References

Hæmorrhage. However carefully an operation may be conducted or whatever material may be employed for ligatures, there is a liability of bleeding after the patient has been returned to bed. Severe internal bleeding is usually due to the slipping of a ligature from an ovarian pedicle, or a uterine artery: it may come from a vaginal artery, especially in total hysterectomy, and occasionally from a vessel in an adhesion which has been missed in the course of the operation, for oozing which is scarcely appreciable when a patient is collapsed may become very free when reaction occurs.

Severe internal bleeding is manifested by very obvious signs: pallor, cold skin, rapid but feeble pulse, restlessness, and sighing respiration. When these symptoms are manifested the wound must be reopened, the blood and clot removed, and the bleeding point secured. It often happens, where the bleeding is due to the slipping of a ligature from the uterine or ovarian artery, that by the time the surgeon reopens the wound the patient is so bloodless that there is difficulty in determining the source of the bleeding. In very bad cases it is a wise plan to arrange for an assistant to perform the intravenous infusion whilst the surgeon deals with the bleeding vessel. (See Vol. I, p. 405.)

Intravenous injection is the best method of treating patients when the loss of blood has been great. It is unwise to transfuse more than three pints into the veins, or the lungs will become waterlogged and the patient will be later in great peril. When the loss is moderate in amount and the patient is not greatly enfeebled, a pint or more of saline solution may be poured into the abdomen before closing the incision, and this may be supplemented by the administration of six or more ounces of the solution by the anus at two-hourly intervals until the force of the circulation is restored.

In some instances the subcutaneous injection of normal saline solution may be employed. A suitable region is the loose tissue under and around the breasts. When this method is adopted the skin should be rendered antiseptic, otherwise troublesome abscesses and cellulitis will arise in the subcutaneous tissue at the situation where the saline solution has been injected.

Intrapelvic hæmorrhage. For many years I have maintained that two factors which have enabled hysterectomy to vanquish oöphorectomy in the treatment of uterine fibroids are rigid asepsis and perfect hæmostasis. In the early days of intrapelvic surgery there used to be much discussion on the subject of free blood in the pelvic cavity: some practical surgeons urged that it was harmful and would induce peritonitis, and others took the opposite view. From my own observations I came to the conclusion that effusions of blood in the abdomen were often quickly absorbed, but that this was not invariable; and that post-operative collections of blood were very liable to become septic, especially when drainage was employed. I also pointed out that the large effusions of blood in the abdomen due to tubal abortion, or to the rupture of a gravid tube, are often attended with fever, and in some instances the temperature rises to 103°. In such cases, when operative interference is undertaken, the deliquescent clot present in the pelvis often gives off a musty odour. Much light has been thrown on this condition by Dudgeon and Sargent, who have specially investigated the bacteriology of intraperitoneal effusions. These observers have isolated from intraperitoneal effusions of blood a white staphylococcus, which makes its appearance in the blood within a few hours of being effused, and they are of opinion that the febrile disturbances so frequently found after effusions of blood into the peritoneal cavity are due to the presence of this organism.

Apart from the pathological importance of these observations there is a point of practical value connected with them. The white staphylococcus will infect sutures and give rise to stitch-abscesses in the wound; in view of this fact it behoves the surgeon who has to deal with a stale effusion of blood in the pelvis and evacuates it by an incision through the abdominal wall, that in closing the incision he should employ through and through sutures, and not attempt to suture it layer by layer. I have noticed the same tendency to stitch-abscess in cases of diffuse pelvic inflammation due to infection by the gonococcus.

Pneumonia. This is a serious and not infrequent sequel of cœliotomy, especially when it concerns diseased conditions in the upper half of the abdomen: pneumonia occurs frequently as a sequel to ovariotomy, hysterectomy, and allied operations, and occasionally has a fatal ending. It may arise from inhalation, or may be due to the dorsal position (hypostatic pneumonia), or it may arise from infection.

Inhalation pneumonia is not uncommon, and although it is often attributed to the anæsthetic, especially ether, it is doubtless due to a combination of causes, such as a cold room, undue exposure of the body, septic teeth, the chilling effects of ether on the tissues of the lung, and occasionally to a dirty face-piece belonging to the ether or chloroform apparatus.

Hypostatic congestion of the lungs is liable to occur in the aged and in debilitated patients; it is a complication in such cases always to be guarded against.

Embolic pneumonia is the most serious form, and occurs as a sequel to operations for septic conditions, such as pyosalpinx, suppurating ovarian cysts, septic fibroids, and post-operative sepsis; it is also associated with thrombosis, especially when the pelvic veins contain septic clot.

In the preceding section attention was drawn to the appearance in intra-abdominal blood-effusions of a white staphylococcus: such collections of blood are prone to decompose and cause the temperature to rise.

On several occasions in which blood has been effused freely into the pelvic cavity, either as a consequence of tubal pregnancy, or as a sequel to an operation, such as an abdominal myomectomy, and the blood has been allowed to remain, or it has been inefficiently drained, the patients have died from septic pneumonia.

In cases of septic thrombosis the patients run a definite risk from pulmonary embolism. When the embolus is large the patient sometimes dies in a few minutes (see p. 101); but even in cases where the embolus is too small to promptly destroy the patient’s life, its lodgment in the lungs entails in some instances a very serious illness, and occasionally a fatal termination.

Parotitis. Septic parotitis, or, as it is sometimes called, symptomatic or secondary parotitis, to distinguish it from mumps, is an occasional sequel to abdominal operations of all kinds. Careful observations have shown that parotitis is more common after operations for septic conditions, and, although it occasionally occurs after operations which run an afebrile course, the conditions underlying it are mainly septic in character.

Septic parotitis is distinguished from mumps in the following points:—

It occurs as a complication of some other affection, is in itself non-contagious, and occasionally suppurates. There are two views held in regard to its etiology: some hold that it is due to direct infection of the duct (Stenson’s) of the parotid gland by micro-organisms from the mouth, whilst others maintain that the path of infection is mainly by the blood-stream.

Two able investigations have recently been published in regard to this condition, in which one writer (Bucknall) supports the view that it is an ascending affection from the mouth, and the other (Tebbs) brings forward evidence that the elements of infection reach it by the blood-stream.

Lequeu has seen many cases of post-operative parotitis, and at his suggestion Verliac and Morel investigated the condition in the laboratory. They came to the conclusion that this variety of parotitis originates in the ducts of the gland.

When parotitis complicates post-operative convalescence, it is almost entirely confined to septic cases: it may occur within two days of the operation or as late as the thirtieth day. It is more common between the sixth and tenth days, and its advent is accompanied by much disturbance. The parotid swells and becomes painful and tender; the skin over it is red and often brawny. These signs are accompanied by fever, malaise, and depression of spirits. In mild cases they subside in a few days, but in severe cases rigors occur, with high fever and suppuration.

The mild cases are best treated with warm fomentations, frequently changed. If suppuration occurs, the pus will need to be evacuated by a scalpel, but incisions in a suppurating parotid gland should be carried out with careful regard to the branches of the facial nerve (pes anserinus), and the large vessels intimately associated with it.

The surgeon need not be in a great hurry to use the scalpel in these cases, for it seems occasionally as if the skin would slough, and yet when it is incised no pus escapes. This septic parotitis is deceptive in the red and brawny appearance of the skin covering the swollen gland, and the misleading sense of fluctuation. In many instances the inflammatory products escape by way of the parotid duct.

Septic parotitis is an unpleasant and painful complication of an abdominal operation, but it is rarely dangerous and has only had a fatal termination in very exceptional cases.

Thrombosis. After operations on the pelvic organs, thrombosis occasionally occurs in the iliac, femoral, and saphena veins, accompanied by fever, pain, especially in the course of the long saphenous vein, and œdema of the limb. It is noticed most frequently about the twelfth day after operation.

In some patients the thrombosis is confined to the superficial veins of the calf and thigh, but when the femoral and internal iliac veins and the associated lymphatics are involved, the œdema is of a solid kind. Apart from the danger which ensues from the detachment of a fragment of clot and its arrest in the pulmonary artery, this complication is often very serious for the patient, for it entails a long confinement to bed, a tedious convalescence, and the œdema of the limb will sometimes persist for many weeks or months, in spite of topical applications, careful bandaging, or judicious massage.

Post-operative thrombosis was formerly fairly common after hysterectomy for fibroids and in the later stages of malignant disease of the uterus. Its frequency after operations for fibroids was attributed to the profound anæmia in patients who had severe and exhausting metrorrhagia. I am convinced that it is due to sepsis. In several instances I have caused the clot found in thrombosed veins to be examined bacteriologically, and pathogenic microscopic organisms have been isolated. I am also satisfied that in some cases of thrombosis of the veins of the thigh, especially those limited to the saphenous veins, the clotting spreads from the superficial veins of the hypogastrium which are infected from the abdominal incision.

Pulmonary embolism. In perusing the clinical histories of a series of cases of ovariotomy, hysterectomy, myomectomy, and, indeed, after almost any surgical operation, here and there a record may be read to this effect: ‘The patient appeared to be doing well after the operation, when she sat up, laughed and chatted with the nurse, then suddenly fell back and died in a few minutes.’

Anything more tragic than this it is difficult to conceive, and, as a rule, after such a sad occurrence, the relatives are so distressed that they rarely permit an examination of the body. Death in such circumstances is usually attributed to embolism of the pulmonary artery. In some instances this is an assumption, but there are many in which an embolus has been demonstrated, and a few in which the source has been detected.

Post-operative embolism of the pulmonary artery is an important matter for surgeons interested in the operative treatment of uterine fibroids, for it follows such operations more frequently than any other. In order to afford some notion of the relative liability of patients to this accident after subtotal and total hysterectomy for fibroids, I have gathered the following statistics, which are interesting as showing an extraordinary variation in the practice of different operators:—

Baldy ascertained that among 366 operations for fibroids in the Gynecean Hospital, Philadelphia, there were thirteen sudden deaths attributed to pulmonary embolism.

In the Middlesex Hospital between the years 1896 and 1906 (both years inclusive) there were 212 abdominal hysterectomies performed for fibroids. Three of the patients died from pulmonary embolism. Spencer, in eighty-five total hysterectomies, had two deaths from pulmonary embolism. R. Lyle, in eight cases of subtotal hysterectomy, had one sudden death.

Mallet collected the records of 1,800 cœliotomies: there were six deaths attributed to embolism, and of these, three followed operations for uterine fibroids. Chas. P. Noble, in forty-two vaginal myomectomies, lost two patients, one from septic endocarditis, the other from embolism; in the latter case the fibroid was gangrenous.

Olshausen, from the year 1896 to the end of 1905, performed 366 hysterectomies for fibroids; twenty-seven of these patients died. Five of the fatal cases were due to embolism.

Since 1894 I have performed more than a thousand operations of various kinds for fibroids, and have lost one patient from pulmonary embolism. This happened in 1900. The woman was forty-five years of age and profoundly anæmic from profuse and long-continued menorrhagia. Twelve days after subtotal hysterectomy she asked to be pillowed up in bed; this was done, when she suddenly slipped down the bed in agony and died in fifteen minutes. At the post-mortem examination the right pulmonary artery was found plugged with a thick clot. No thrombosed vessels were found in the pelvis.

The symptoms of pulmonary embolism may occur at any period from the hour of the operation up to the thirtieth day. In the majority of patients embolism happens about the twelfth day. The symptoms supervene with great suddenness and seem to be preceded by movement, such as sitting up, getting out of bed, and especially straining during defæcation. Withrow tells of a patient who was attacked whilst ‘putting on her clothes to leave the hospital’. She died in twelve hours. Reclus, at a meeting of the Société de Paris, 1897, mentioned that a patient quitting the hospital, apparently convalescent from hysterectomy, fell dead in the courtyard from pulmonary embolism. In one remarkable instance a patient complained of sciatic pain fifteen days after hysterectomy. In order to afford relief the surgeon flexed the patient’s thigh on her abdomen and then suddenly extended it. This dislodged a clot, and the woman was seized with the symptoms of pulmonary embolism and died in forty-seven minutes. At the post-mortem examination the pulmonary artery was found occluded with clot and the ovarian vein contained a thrombus (Byron Robinson).

It is important to note that these fatal cases of pulmonary embolism occur when they are least expected, and it is an unusual sequence in patients with obvious thrombosis of the femoral and saphenous veins.

The most constant symptoms are urgent dyspnœa accompanied by great distress; in some instances the patient becomes pallid and in others cyanotic. Death may follow in a few minutes; in less severe cases it is delayed several hours, the patient remains conscious, but suffers severe mental agony.

A pulmonary embolism is not necessarily fatal, for a woman after a pelvic operation may complain of sudden pain in the chest, urgent dyspnœa, exhibit great mental distress, and in a short time spit up sputum mixed with blood. In a few hours the urgent symptoms subside and in two or three days pass away, and the patient recovers. I have seen five examples of this mild form of pulmonary embolism after hysterectomy. One of the patients appeared to suffer from a succession of small pulmonary emboli.

Fig. 25. The Pulmonary Artery and Adjacent Part of the Lung and Trachea. The artery is completely occluded by a clot derived from a thrombus in the right auricle. (Museum of the Middlesex Hospital.) Three-quarter size.

Somerville Hastings refers to a woman thirty-six years of age, anæmic from profuse, long-continued menorrhagia due to a uterine fibroid, who, whilst waiting in the hospital for hysterectomy, was seized with pulmonary embolism and died three hours later. An embolus occupied the pulmonary artery, resembling a blood-clot found in the left common and internal iliac veins. Hastings also states that in a patient who died from pulmonary embolism, after an operation, a thrombus occupied the right cardiac ventricle, and he thought it possible that this intraventricular clot furnished the embolus (Fig. 25).

We must bear in mind that individuals apparently in good health die suddenly in the street, in the armchair, in a bath, or even during sleep: it is a fair assumption that some of the instances of sudden death occurring during convalescence from surgical operations may be due to failure of the heart absolutely unconnected with the operation. It is, however, undeniable that thrombosis of the pelvic veins after ovariotomy, or hysterectomy, is a source of fatal emboli. At present there is very little evidence available as to the cause of the thrombosis, but it can scarcely be doubted that sepsis, it may be only of a mild type, is responsible for some of the cases.

A careful consideration of the matter reveals beyond any doubt that pulmonary embolism occurs much more frequently after hysterectomy or fibroids than after any other operation, and it is especially liable to happen in women who are profoundly anæmic from profuse and prolonged menorrhagia. This indicates that long-continued and irregular losses of blood induce some change in the composition of this important fluid, which favours its coagulation.

It has been suggested that the practice of keeping patients strictly confined to bed for two or three weeks after hysterectomy and allied operations is responsible for the thrombosis which is the source of these fatal emboli. Some American surgeons act on this suggestion and insist on their patients getting out of bed a few days after such operations. This method does not commend itself to British surgeons. In my own practice I make it a rule, even in the most favourable conditions, to keep the patients confined to bed for two weeks. No patient is allowed up until her temperature has been normal for at least three days. The consequences of this practice appear to be justified, for in more than a thousand hysterectomies, only one of my patients lost her life in consequence of pulmonary embolism.

In cases of embolism of the pulmonary artery, death does not always occur immediately, but may be postponed for an hour or more after the lodgment of the embolus.

Trendelenburg is of opinion that it might be possible to remove this clot by direct surgical intervention. After careful consideration of the matter he carried out this operation on a woman aged sixty-three years; he raised an osteoplastic flap on the left side of the thorax, exposed the conus arteriosus, and intended to withdraw the clot, by means of a specially constructed pump, through a slit in its walls. The patient died from excessive bleeding before the clot could be extracted; the operation was hindered by an adherent pericardium.

Trendelenburg has carried out this operation on a man forty-five years of age. This patient was tabetic and sustained a spontaneous fracture of the femur. One month later he was seized with urgent dyspnœa and signs clearly indicating the lodgment of an embolus in the pulmonary artery. Trendelenburg exposed the heart, opened the pulmonary artery, and by means of polypus forceps succeeded in withdrawing 34 centimetres of clot. The incision in the artery was carefully closed with sutures. The man improved considerably as the result of the operation, but died thirty-seven hours later. At the post-mortem examination the left and right branches of the pulmonary artery contained an embolus. From the surgical point of view there are no reasons why such a bold example should not be repeated with success.

When patients who are profoundly anæmic from menorrhagia due to fibroids undergo hysterectomy, it is a useful measure to give them twenty grains of citrate of sodium twice daily in order to diminish the abnormal tendency of the blood to coagulate in the vessels. Certainly this drug should be administered if there is the least evidence of thrombosis.

Foreign bodies left in the abdomen. Every writer on ovariotomy and kindred operations insists on the importance of exercising the utmost personal vigilance in counting instruments and dabs before, and immediately after, an abdominal operation in order to avert the dangers which ensue when instruments, dabs, gauze, or drainage tubes are accidentally left in the abdominal cavity. Before the era of antiseptic surgery nearly all the patients in whom foreign bodies were left in the abdominal cavity died. In several instances the surgeon has discovered, on counting the sponges and instruments after the operation, one or more to be missing, and, failing to find them in the room, has reopened the wound and recovered the missing article. In many lucky cases, a sponge or compress has given rise to an abscess, and, the wound reopened, the sponge presented at the opening. Often a compress of cotton-wool or gauze has slowly ulcerated into the rectum and been discharged through the anus.

When things of this kind are left in the abdomen the risks are not so great now as in pre-antiseptic days, but they cause much discomfort and anxiety as well as suffering: moreover, such an accident entails reopening the wound and occasionally a serious operation for the removal of the missing article, and as a recent decision in a Court of Law fixes the responsibility on the operator, there is always the possibility of an action at law with all its vexations and the liability of being mulcted in damages.

The behaviour of foreign bodies left in the abdomen is curious and also interesting from the great length of time which metal instruments will sometimes remain without causing very urgent symptoms, and the tendency they exhibit to penetrate adjacent viscera.

Among the early cases Sir Spencer Wells reported one in which a pair of forceps was found in a patient’s bladder who died a month after ovariotomy. Olshausen mentions that a pair of forceps was passed by the rectum nine months after ovariotomy, and Terrillon tells of a pair of pressure forceps which remained eight months in the belly and came out close to the navel. One of the most remarkable instances is recorded by MacLaren, in which a pair of forceps was left in the abdomen in the course of a hysterectomy. Two years later, a swelling formed in the right iliac region; this was explored through an abdominal incision, and the hæmostatic forceps represented in Fig. 26 was found embedded in the omentum; the forceps had ulcerated into the cæcum and the blades were lodged in the vermiform appendix. The patient recovered.

Fig. 26. A Pair of Pressure Forceps: this instrument had remained in the abdomen two years after hysterectomy. The forceps had ulcerated into the cæcum and the blades had lodged in the vermiform appendix. (After MacLaren.)

In order to illustrate the diminished risks run by patients when the instruments and dabs used in operations are thoroughly sterilized, reference may be made to a case recently reported by J. E. F. Stewart (Australia), in which he removed a pair of pressure forceps which had remained in the abdomen for ten years and a half. The patient, who had been more or less an invalid since the primary operation, had suffered from attacks of acute pain, constipation alternating with diarrhœa, and pains in the lower limbs. The instrument, which measured 5 inches long and 2½ across the handles, was lying point downwards in the pelvis, and the ring handles could be felt through the belly-wall before the operation: it had made its way into the small intestine.

The tendency for a foreign body, whether hard like forceps, or soft like gauze pads, to erode its way into the intestine is very remarkable. Thus Gifford operated on a patient with intestinal obstruction; an impacted mass was felt in the ileum, it was extracted through an incision in the gut and proved to be a pad of cotton-wool enveloped in gauze. She recovered. Three months previously this woman had undergone abdominal myomectomy.

Another source of risk to patients is the practice or habit of packing the pelvic recesses with strips of gauze temporarily, either with the hope of controlling oozing, or to serve as a drain. I have long abandoned this habit. The disadvantage of gauze stuffing which needs consideration in this section is the risk that some portion, or the whole of it, is sometimes left in the wound. Examples are known where long strips of ‘gauze stuffing’, sometimes amounting to a yard or more, have been passed through the anus a year after the operation. Many intractable sinuses have had a forgotten piece of gauze as the cause of their persistence.

A woman had cœliotomy performed for peritonitis, the consequence of criminal abortion; she had a long convalescence due to an intractable sinus. Eventually the patient was thought to have tuberculous disease of the appendages, and a mass, formed mainly by the Fallopian tube, was removed. The walls of the tube were intact, but when slit open the tube was found to contain a small gauze tampon (Kouwer).

The isolated records relating to foreign bodies left in the abdomen are very numerous. Thus Wilson in 1884 was able to collect twenty-eight cases from periodical literature and personal reports from friends. An interesting discussion took place on the reading of a paper on this subject before an American gynæcological society, by R. W. Waldo, and the number of cases related by the members is astonishing and refer to such things as sponges, dabs, forceps, a strip of iodoform gauze ‘a yard wide and two yards long’, a pair of spectacles, and ‘an operating-room towel’, which were left in the abdominal cavity.

The most comprehensive collection of records relating to foreign bodies left in wounds of all kinds has been made by F. von Neugebauer; they amount to 195.

References

Tetanus. This dread complication of wounds occasionally occurs after ovariotomy, and during the ‘reign of the clamp’ it was especially frequent in Germany (Olshausen). Cases have been reported in England, and tetanus has been noticed to affect patients who have been ovariotomized in rooms recently plastered.

Since Kitasato demonstrated the bacillary origin of tetanus poison, and showed that the bacillus can be transported by dust, knowing its liability to attack suppurating wounds, we can understand that when the pedicle of an ovarian cyst was secured by a clamp and allowed to slowly slough away, more or less exposed to air and dust, it offered a nidus for the tetanus bacillus.

Tetanus, however, has not quite disappeared as a sequel to operations on the pelvic organs, for in 1902 a case was reported by Dorsett in which a patient died of this disease after hysteropexy, and the tetanus bacillus was detected in some wallaby tendon employed to suspend the uterus. Tetanus has also been traced to infected catgut employed in cholecystotomy (1905).

Ed. Martin reported the occurrence of tetanus after vaginal fixation of the uterus and colporrhaphia anterior. Cumol-catgut was employed.

Menzer has recorded a similar case which occurred in Dührssen’s Klinik (1901). The ligatures were of catgut.

Mallet refers to two post-operative deaths from tetanus. One patient had undergone an operation for bilateral pyosalpinx and the other had a fibroid of the uterus complicated with an ovarian cyst. There was an interval of eighteen months between the two fatal cases. Catgut was employed as the ligature material.

In practice it is important to remember that tetanus arises from infection: hence all instruments which have been in contact with this disease must be sterilized, and this should be effected by submitting them to prolonged boiling.

Tetanus occurs as a rare sequel to miscarriage and normal labour. Kraus and von Rosthorn have reported some carefully investigated cases of this kind.

References

Injury to intestines. Intestines great and small are very liable to injury in the performance of intrapelvic operations. Unless care is taken in opening the abdomen, the intestines are apt to be cut, especially when there has been chronic peritonitis, as in tuberculous and gonococcal infections, which cause the small intestine to adhere to the parietal peritoneum investing the anterior abdominal wall. Where cœliotomy is being performed a second or third time, through or near the original cicatrix, it is necessary to proceed with extreme caution for fear of cutting an adherent coil of gut.

Intestine is also liable to be torn in separating adhesions from the tumour, and great care is necessary when cysts are firmly adherent to the floor of the pelvis, for in separating them the rectum runs a great risk of being damaged.

In removing tumours to which the vermiform appendix adhered it is necessary to be careful and avoid mistaking it for an adhesion, for there is reason to believe that this structure has been divided and its nature overlooked; an accident of this sort leads usually to fatal peritonitis.

It has happened, in the course of removing very adherent ovaries and tubes from the floor of the pelvis, that in transfixing the pedicle a coil of ileum has also been transfixed with the needle and tied to the stump. This accident is not likely to happen now that the Trendelenburg position is almost universally employed.

In sewing the abdominal incision the intestines have been pricked with a needle, and in some instances the bowel has been accidentally included in the sutures and sewn to the abdominal wall. On one occasion while securing a very long incision with through and through sutures, while passing the needle through the abdominal wall, it broke, and the broken end came with great force against the anterior wall of the stomach and tore a hole in it. This I secured at once with suture and the accident had no bad consequences.

An unrecognized wound of the bowel in the course of a pelvic operation is almost certainly fatal. Accidental injuries, such as punctures and cuts, require immediate suture, and I have never known any harm follow. On the other hand, ragged tears in thickened and inflamed bowel require careful consideration in order to spare patients the inconvenience and distress of fæcal fistulæ.

In regard to small intestine a very small opening may occasionally be safely secured with fine silk, but in most cases it is wiser, if the bowel is thickened and inflamed around the hole, to resect well wide of the damaged portion and join the cut ends (circular enterorrhaphy).

Holes low down in the rectum are difficult to suture securely. These should be treated by drainage, using a wide rubber drain; the convalescence will be tedious, but the fistula will close.

It is useful to remember that if the rubber tube be too long it may enter the hole in the bowel and thus maintain the fistula. On one occasion I was asked to close a fæcal fistula which had followed an oöphorectomy. This fistula persisted five years. At the operation I found a hole in the sigmoid flexure with its margins adherent to the opening in the parietes, so that the tube passed directly into the bowel. The gut was detached and the opening closed with sutures, and it gave no further trouble.

If, in the course of an ovariotomy or hysterectomy, the surgeon discovers a cancerous stricture in the colon or cæcum he should resect the affected section, if it permits of this treatment; otherwise lateral anastomosis should be performed. (See Vol. II.)

Intestinal obstruction. It is difficult to estimate with any approach to accuracy the relative frequency of intestinal obstruction after operations on the uterus and its appendages; nevertheless the danger is real. The obstruction may be acute or chronic: it may occur within thirty hours of the operation or be delayed for months or years. The causes may be arranged under five headings:—

1. Adhesions to the abdominal wound.

2. Adhesions to the pedicle, stump, or a raw surface in the pelvis.

3. Strangulation around an adventitious band.

4. Obstruction due to an overlooked cancer in the colon.

5. Strangulation in a sac formed by a yielding cicatrix.

The form of intestinal obstruction with which we are most concerned here arises shortly after the operation and in the course of convalescence; it may be caused by adhesions to the abdominal incision, the pedicles, raw surfaces in the pelvis left after the removal of adherent cysts and tumours, and the cervical stump of a subtotal hysterectomy.

The subject is one of importance, for the complication is fairly common in the practice of some surgeons, and is one which it is very necessary to recognize, for, unless measures of relief are undertaken promptly, the patient surely dies.

From a careful study of the matter I have come to the conclusion that acute intestinal obstruction is more frequent after ovariotomy than after hysterectomy, and this is due to the fact that the stump or pedicle left after the removal of an ovarian tumour lies higher in the pelvis, and in closer relation to ileum and jejunum, than the cervical stump left after the removal of the uterus. This view also receives support from the fact that acute intestinal obstruction following hysterectomy is more frequent in the practice of those surgeons who perform subtotal hysterectomy improperly, and leave a large piece of the neck of the uterus sticking up like a median post in the floor of the pelvis. As far as I can judge from the scanty records relating to this complication after hysterectomy, it is the sigmoid flexure of the colon which is most commonly adherent to the cervical stump. The best way of avoiding this accident is to remove the supravaginal cervix so freely that, when the peritoneum is closed over the incision in the floor of the pelvis, there is nothing visible except a narrow thin line of suture at the base of the bladder.

The only rational method of treating acute intestinal obstruction following operations in the pelvis, is to promptly reopen the abdomen and set free the adherent coil of gut. Operations of this kind after hysterectomy are more often successful than when they are a sequel to ovariotomy, and this is, I think, due to the fact already mentioned, that when intestinal obstruction follows ovariotomy or oöphorectomy, the obstruction arises in the small intestine and is usually very acute and more dangerous; whereas after hysterectomy the obstruction affects, as a rule, the sigmoid flexure of the colon, and though it may be fairly acute, is not nearly so dangerous, and gives far better results to operative treatment.

Perforating ulcer of the stomach and small intestine. A rare cause of death after ovariotomy or hysterectomy is a perforating ulcer of the stomach or jejunum. Since 1887 I have seen three cases. In each instance the patient died from septic peritonitis. Rosthorn lost a patient from perforating ulcer of the stomach after hysterectomy. Olshausen states that he has seen at least four examples of this accident.2

Injuries to the bladder. This viscus has been injured in a variety of ways during operations on the pelvic organs. An overfull bladder has been mistaken for an ovarian cyst and been punctured with a trocar before the mistake was discovered. When tumours are impacted in the pelvis the bladder is often pushed up into the hypogastrium; this happens with bilateral ovarian tumours, incarcerated fibroids, and especially with large cervix fibroids. When the bladder is pushed up, care should be exercised in making the abdominal incision, or it will be cut. Punctures and incisions in the bladder should be immediately closed with sutures of fine silk.

The bladder is liable to be injured in the performance of subtotal and total hysterectomy, especially in the latter operation when separating it from the neck of the uterus. In the subtotal operation the risk arises chiefly in suturing the peritoneal flaps over the cervical stump, for the bladder is liable to be punctured with the needle as it lies close to the anterior flap.

Injuries to the ureter. Since the vulgarization of hysterectomy, injuries of the ureters have become common; nearly all are inflicted in cases where the neck of the uterus is removed, as in total abdominal hysterectomy, and in vaginal hysterectomy, because the vesical segments of these ducts come into close relationship with it.

British surgical and gynæcological periodical literature contains very little that concerns ureteral injuries, but it is only necessary to look into the pages of the Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie to find ample evidence that the integrity of the ureters is frequently sacrificed to modern pelvic surgery.

Blau published statistics from Chrobak’s Klinik in Vienna showing that in the interval January, 1900, to January, 1902, the ureters were injured fifteen times. In total hysterectomy seven times; in the course of ovariotomy on three occasions.

Sampson stated that from August, 1889, to January, 1904, the uterus was removed 156 times for cancer of its neck at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and the ureters were injured nineteen times. The injuries were of various kinds, such as ‘ligating, clamping, cauterizing, cutting.’

In abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids the risk of injuring a ureter is not great. Thus Deaver writes that in the course of 250 abdominal hysterectomies he injured the ureter once, but the accident entailed the death of the patient.

I have performed hysterectomy on 1,000 occasions and injured the ureter once; my patient had a narrow escape for life and lost a kidney.

I have been present on five occasions when a ureter was injured. Four of the operations were for the removal of the uterus on account of fibroids, and one was an ovariotomy. Four of the patients died.

The injuries to which the ureters are liable in the course of hysterectomy are as follows:—

1. One or both ureters have been included in the ligatures applied to the uterine arteries.

2. One or both ureters have been cut or completely divided with scissors, or knife, in removal of the uterus.

3. A segment of a ureter 7 centimetres in length has been accidentally exsected.

4. One or both ureters have been compressed by clamps applied to restrain bleeding in the course of vaginal hysterectomy, and subsequently sloughed.

5. Ureters exposed in the course of ‘radical’ operations for cancer of the neck of the uterus often slough.

6. A ureter is sometimes transfixed by a needle and thread when sewing the layers of the broad ligament together in the course of a subtotal hysterectomy.

The most dangerous injury to the ureters occurs in the course of a subtotal hysterectomy, especially if it is not recognized at the time of the operation. In such circumstances the urine will slowly leak into the connective tissue of the broad ligament and form an extravasation extending into the loin.

In some cases the fluid will leak directly into the pelvis, and a sinus will form in the abdominal wound and allow the urine to escape; this may be the first intimation that a ureter has been injured, whereas when a ureter has sustained damage in the course of a total abdominal or a vaginal hysterectomy, the leakage of urine along the vagina will quickly apprise the surgeon of the accident.

There is another form of injury to the ureter which should be mentioned. Occasionally a fibroid, but more often a cyst or tumour arising from the base of the broad ligament, will involve the corresponding ureter and carry it upwards in such a way that, when the layers of the broad ligament are reflected, the ureter will be found crossing the crown of the tumour like a strap. In such a case the pressure has usually exerted a banal influence on the kidney, and it is often in the condition known as sacculation. In a case under my own care in which I attempted to remove a malignant tumour of the broad ligament, and in which the ureter ran over its upper pole in this way, thinking it was an adhesion, traction was made upon it, and the ureter came away with a portion of the renal pelvis. At the post-mortem examination the kidney was merely a thin-walled sac with purulent contents.

In all cases in the course of an abdominal hysterectomy it is useful for the surgeon to inform himself of the condition of the kidneys. Whilst performing a subtotal hysterectomy, one of the fibroids burrowed deeply between the layers of the left broad ligament; when all the bleeding was checked, I looked carefully to determine that the ureter was safe, and found it kinked by the ligature applied to the corresponding uterine artery; it was at once removed. On palpating the kidneys I found the right kidney small, and shrunken, and useless. Fortunately the woman recovered.

The method of treating an injured ureter varies greatly and will depend not only on the extent of the damage, but also on the time at which it is recognized. For example, if the surgeon recognizes the injury in the course of the operation, he will be able to deal with it at once. This we may term immediate treatment. The more difficult cases are those in which the injury is unrecognized at the time of the operation and only becomes obvious in the course of convalescence; the treatment in such circumstances may be called secondary.

The primary treatment of an injury to a ureter in the course of a pelvic operation will depend in a large measure on the ability, judgment, and experience of the surgeon, as well as on the extent of the injury. For example, if the ureter be partially divided, the opening may be closed with sutures of thin silk; when the duct is completely divided, the cut ends may be invaginated, the upper into the lower, and retained in position by suture. When five or more centimetres of the ureter have been accidentally exsected, none of these methods is applicable; in such circumstances several plans have been tried. Of these the simplest is ligature of the proximal end with the hope of inducing atrophy of the kidney; in several recorded instances this has proved successful. The surgeon who adopts this method should satisfy himself that the patient has another kidney, and that it is, as far as he can ascertain at the time, healthy. Some surgeons who have divided a ureter have promptly removed the corresponding kidney; others have secured the proximal end in the upper angle of the abdominal incision and removed the kidney subsequently.

Fig. 27. The Relation of Parts after Ricard’s Operation of Uretero-cysto-neostomy (after Lutaud). A, the proximal end of the ureter with the mucous membrane reflected. B, the walls of the bladder, showing the mode of fixing the ureter to its walls. 1 and 2, sutures.

It has been suggested that when a portion of a ureter has been resected and the proximal end cannot be engrafted into the wall of the bladder, it should be turned into the cæcum or the sigmoid flexure, according to its position, and thus preserve to the patient the kidney and save her the distress of a urinary fistula. This method has not found favour with practical surgeons. The most promising procedure consists in engrafting the proximal end of the cut ureter into the bladder. This is known as uretero-cysto-neostomy, an operation which has been made the subject of a valuable thesis by Dr. Lutaud. This thesis appears to have been inspired as a result of two successful operations performed by Ricard. The principle of this method is as follows: —

The abdomen is opened by the usual median subumbilical incision, and the peritoneum covering the damaged duct is incised and its proximal end exposed: the mucous membrane of the ureter is reflected like a cuff. An opening is made in the bladder wall in a situation convenient for making the junction, and two centimetres of the ureter are allowed to project freely into the vesical cavity, ‘à la façon d’un battant de cloche.’ The ureter is secured by sutures to the vesical mucous membrane, and to the muscular coat of the bladder. The sutures should be of thin catgut and must not perforate the bladder or the ureteral walls. The bladder itself near the junction should be attached by sutures to the adjacent peritoneum to prevent dragging (Fig. 27).

Lutaud significantly points out that we know little of the subsequent fate of ureters which have been engrafted into the bladder. The immediate results have been successful, but there is good reason to believe that when a ureter has been engrafted into the bladder, its walls become sclerosed by a chronic ureteritis, and its lumen is gradually stenosed. These changes take place slowly and cause little or no discomfort in connexion with the kidney or the bladder, so that they pass unnoticed.

If the opinion expressed by Lutaud, that the ureter becomes stenosed after uretero-cysto-neostomy, is found to be a constant, or even a frequent, sequel to the transplantation of a ureter into the bladder, it will cause surgeons to be careful, and not follow too literally the advice given by some writers to the effect that in performing the ‘radical operation’ for cancer of the cervix, if the ureters are implicated these ducts may be divided and their proximal ends engrafted into the bladder.

Lockyer, in removing a burrowing fibroid, wounded the bladder and divided the right ureter; he sutured the vesical incision and removed the right kidney. During the twenty-four hours following the operation there was anuria. The abdomen was reopened and then it was found that the left ureter had also been divided. The proximal end of this ureter was engrafted into the bladder through the wound which had been already sutured. Convalescence was disturbed by a urinary fistula. The woman recovered and reported herself in good health three years later.

It has happened that after nephrectomy for the cure of a ureteral fistula, the sequel of a ‘radical operation’, the remaining ureter became thoroughly blocked by recurrent growth and the patient died from anuria.

In the cases where the injury to a ureter has been overlooked in the course of the operation many difficulties arise before the true conditions are appreciated. In some instances they soon become obvious; for example, Purcell in 1898 performed an abdominal hysterectomy, next day the patient had complete anuria. The abdomen was reopened fifty-eight hours later; a distended ureter was easily recognized behind the ligatures applied to the right and left uterine artery respectively. The ligatures were removed, the swelling quickly subsided, and urine reached the bladder. The woman recovered.

When a ureter is injured in the performance of total hysterectomy, urine escapes by the vagina, and at first there may be some doubt whether the leak is due to an injury to the bladder or to the ureter. In such conditions the quantity of urine voided from the bladder is compared with that which escapes from the vagina; if the quantities are equal, or nearly equal, the leak is in a ureter. A more reliable method is to inject a solution of methylene blue into the bladder through the urethra. If the coloured fluid escapes from the vagina, the leak is in the bladder; if not, it is in the ureter. When a vaginal leakage occurs a few days after a vaginal hysterectomy, it is probably due to necrosis and sloughing of a ureter, or the duct may have been included in a ligature which has separated by sloughing.

Noble, in 1902, published an interesting series of injuries to the ureter. One of these is of great value, because it proves that a ureter may be accidentally ligatured and give rise to no symptoms.

A woman of thirty-three years of age was submitted to vaginal hysterectomy for cancer of the neck of the uterus, complicated with pregnancy. She died four days after the operation, and at the post-mortem examination the left ureter was found occluded with a ligature. The ureter and pelvis of the kidney were distended with urine.

The urine voided during the four days amounted on the first day to 480 c.c. (16 oz.); second day, 780 c.c. (26 oz.); third day, 1,440 c.c. (48 oz.); fourth day, 960 c.c. (32 oz.). These quantities would lull suspicion in regard to any patient, but the facts of the case are sufficient to raise suspicions of another kind, namely, that it is possible and probable that a ureter has been ligatured in the course of an operation, and the patient has recovered without any one having any suspicion that such an accident has happened.

As soon as the surgeon clearly establishes the existence of a ureteral fistula he is beset with the necessity of deciding which duct is the seat of damage. Some years ago, when it was the practice to remove the kidney for a persistent ureteral fistula, the decision involved the surgeon in a grave responsibility, for the removal of the wrong kidney could only be regarded as a catastrophe for the patient. Morris has recorded a case in which this actually happened. A woman had total hysterectomy performed for a cervix fibroid by a gynæcologist; in the course of the convalescence a ureteral fistula was recognized, and as this failed to close spontaneously, a surgical colleague performed nephrectomy, and next day found to his chagrin that he had removed the kidney belonging to the uninjured ureter. Serious accidents of this kind are less likely to happen now, because the surgeon can avail himself of the cystoscope and ureteral catheter; with these instruments it is possible, not only to decide with certainty which ureter is injured, but also to determine the position and extent of the damage. See also Vol. III.

It is important to remember that every ureteral fistula does not require an operation. It is always advisable, when it has been clearly established that a woman has a leaking ureter, to wait a little, certainly six weeks, for many fistulæ of this kind will gradually close. In describing such a case, Jonas draws attention to a cystoscopic sign of some value. He performed a total hysterectomy for fibroids, and on the tenth day the nurse reported the escape of urine by the vagina. The daily output of urine from the bladder, which had averaged 50 ounces, fell to 25 ounces. On cystoscopic examination, urine could be seen issuing from the right ureteral orifice; at first the left orifice could not be seen, but on careful watching a movement was detected similar to the contraction of a ureter discharging urine, but no fluid came from the opening. This is known as leergehen (empty contraction), and it indicates that there is a lateral opening, but not complete interruption in the continuity of the ureter. Such a case should have an opportunity of healing spontaneously. This happened in Jonas’s patient.

Weibel states that a ureteral fistula due to necrosis after a radical operation for cancer of the uterus usually occurs in the second week. The earliest day is the seventh, and the latest the eighteenth day after operation. The majority of these fistulæ heal in from three to twelve weeks. If a fistula persist for more than three months spontaneous healing is not to be expected. A ureteral fistula is a serious matter for the patient. Blacker has had three cases after total hysterectomy. In one the kidney was removed on account of septic changes. The second had an attack of suppression of urine lasting twenty-four hours; it passed off, the patient recovered and the fistula healed. The third died eight weeks after the hysterectomy with symptoms of pyæmia; a small abscess had formed near the site of the fistula.

The fate of ligatures. When a ligature is satisfactorily applied to a pedicle the tissue on the distal side of the ligature is isolated from the circulation. The fate of this tissue and of the ligature has been the subject of much speculation.

It is a matter of common observation that when animal tissues are cut off from the circulation, they atrophy; but if pathogenic micro-organisms gain access to such parts, suppuration ensues. In due course, through the activity of the living cells, the dead tissues are detached from the living, a process termed sloughing.

When a piece of healthy tissue is removed from the body and immersed in a sterile solution, and absolutely isolated from the atmosphere, decomposition is indefinitely postponed, but as soon as unsterilized air is allowed access to it, putrefactive changes ensue. The pedicle after ovariotomy is in an air-tight chamber, and if the tissues included by the ligature are healthy, and the silk employed for the purpose is absolutely aseptic, this pedicle, when returned into the abdomen, resembles the piece of tissue isolated from contact with the atmosphere. No septic changes occur, but aggressive leucocytes attack the silk and may, in course of time, effect its removal, even the knots. For this desirable result three conditions require to be fulfilled: (1) the ligatured tissue must be aseptic; (2) the ligature should be absolutely sterile; and (3) air or intestinal contents must be excluded.

These conditions may be prevented in many ways. The tissues included in the ligature are not always free from infective organisms, especially the Fallopian tube, which is usually included in the ligature, and this structure, especially in cases where oöphorectomy is performed for inflammatory diseases, often contains septic microbes; this endangers the ligature and leads to the formation of pus, with its complications, sloughing of the pedicle and abscess. The tissues may be healthy and aseptic, but the ligature may have been imperfectly sterilized, or become contaminated by assistants, or even by the hands of the surgeon during its application.

The operation may have been conducted aseptically and the tissues be healthy, but the ligature becomes infected by the admission of air as a result of drainage, or implication of the bowel or bladder.

I made a careful study of the fate of silk sutures employed in pelvic surgery extending over many years, and came to the conclusion that, even under favourable conditions, silk ligatures disappear very slowly. The silk used to secure an ovarian pedicle may, in very favourable circumstances, disappear in twelve months, but the knots require nearly double that time. The piece of silk which encircles the Fallopian tube is apt to behave in a curious way; in 1898 I removed an ovarian cyst the size of a fist, and tied its slender pedicle with thin silk. Although the recovery was uneventful, the patient complained during many weeks of cramp-like pains on the side from which the cyst was removed. These pains gradually subsided, and ten months later, during menstruation, the patient noticed on the napkin a tiny loop of silk, which she saved. This was the loop of silk which secured the Fallopian tube; it had ulcerated into the tube and been conducted into the uterus and escaped. I have since had a like condition, the loop making its appearance three weeks after an ovariotomy. It has been established by experiments on the long uterine cornu of rabbits, that an encircling ligature will ulcerate through, leaving the lumen of the cornu intact. Clinical observations regarding ligatures applied to Fallopian tubes in the performance of Cæsarean section for the purpose of preventing pregnancy prove that this is a useless measure (see p. 71), for these tubes in many instances have recovered their patency, and pregnancy has recurred. It is a fair inference that the ligature ulcerates into the lumen of the tube, which then heals behind it, without stricture of the canal. A similar condition of things sometimes arises after Cæsarean section, especially when the uterine incision is closed by two layers of sutures. Those sutures which involve the endometrium will ulcerate into the uterine cavity and cause irregular slight losses of blood until they escape.

Fig. 28. A Uterus in Sagittal Section. Showing silk ligatures which had been introduced in the operation of Cæsarean section four years previously. (Museum, Royal College of Surgeons.) Full size.

It is important to emphasize the fact that silk sutures in uterine tissue will, in some instances, remain unabsorbed for many years. A patient who had been submitted to Cæsarean section in 1903 came under my care four years afterwards for the removal of the tumour which caused obstruction; the sutures used to close the uterine incision were visible, and a microscopic examination showed that each silk suture was enclosed in a fibrous tissue sheath (Fig. 28).

The fact that silk sutures will resist absorption for such a long period has an important practical bearing, because so long as pathogenic micro-organisms are denied access they remain inert, but if any septic condition arises in their neighbourhood, and these sutures become involved, they will give rise to abscesses and sinuses as surely as if they had been buried but a few days.

Patients often suffer great distress and annoyance on account of abscesses and sinuses due to septic ligatures, and a sinus will persist as long as the ligature remains. Abscesses and sinuses resulting from troublesome ligatures may escape in many directions; the most common spot is at the lower angle of the abdominal incision; the rectum is another channel of escape, and also the bladder. When a ligature makes its way into the bladder it will set up cystitis and serve as a nucleus for a vesical calculus. In an unusual case recorded by Edebohls, double oöphorectomy was performed for uterine fibroids; a year later the ligature on the left side escaped through the vagina; six months later he performed abdominal hysterectomy. The vermiform appendix was adherent to the stump on the right side; it was removed, and a silk ligature tied in a complicated knot was found in it, making its way towards the cæcum.

On one occasion a woman, who had been submitted to subtotal hysterectomy in the Antipodes, suffered from frequent micturition and fœtid urine; she came under my care. On dilating the urethra, it was found that the cervical stump had ulcerated through the posterior wall of the bladder and projected freely into the vesical cavity, bristling with thick silk ligatures encrusted with phosphatic deposit. The ligatures were removed, the urine soon became acid, and the vesical discomfort quickly subsided, in spite of the anomalous position of the cervical stump.

Until surgeons fully realized the importance of thoroughly sterilizing the silk employed for the pedicles in ovariotomy, it was quite common for the silk loops to ulcerate through the bladder wall and set up cystitis.

Many cases have been reported in which a loop of silk, effecting an entrance into the bladder in this fashion, has formed the nucleus of a phosphatic calculus.

Post-operative kraurosis. In a small proportion of patients (perhaps not more than one per cent.) who have undergone bilateral ovariotomy, oöphorectomy, or hysterectomy, the vulva undergoes the peculiar atrophic changes which are characteristic of the condition known as kraurosis vulvæ. This change, so far as my observations go, is chiefly seen in patients who have been submitted to these operations after the fortieth year of life. The cause of these changes is unknown. The condition is troublesome and inconvenient in married women, but spinsters rarely complain of it. Post-operative kraurosis is as rebellious to treatment, and its causation as inexplicable, as kraurosis occurring independently of operation.

The cicatrix. Although the employment of buried sutures has made abdominal incisions more secure in the process of healing, and renders them firmer after union, and thus reduces the chances of a yielding scar, and saves the patient the inconvenience of an abdominal hernia or the annoyance of wearing an abdominal belt, it renders the patient liable to another discomfort, namely, stitch-abscess. This complication arises from a variety of causes—for example, imperfect sterilization of the suture material, or of the patient’s skin preceding the operation. The sutures may be soiled by the hands of nurses and assistants, or the fingers of the surgeon. All these things may be safeguarded, but the operation may have been required for the removal of infected cysts, or pelvic peritonitis: in these cases it is wise not to bury sutures.

Troublesome buried sutures should be removed. In many instances this is easy of accomplishment, and in others it requires patience and often perseverance, even when the patient is under an anæsthetic. The simplest implement for removing a buried suture is a crochet-hook.

The disadvantage of stitch-abscesses, apart from the inconvenience they cause patients during their convalescence, is that they often cause the scar to yield at that spot, and necessitate the wearing of an abdominal belt. If the hernia is of small extent, and especially when it is situated near the lower angle of the scar, it is difficult to fit a belt which will restrain it without the use of perineal bands or straps. In such cases a truss, on the principle of those employed for inguinal hernia, is more satisfactory than a belt.

Occasionally a scar forms a raised hard red keloid band, and causes some anxiety to the patient. These keloid scars shrink and whiten in the course of a year or eighteen months.

Cancer of the cicatrix. Several cases have been recorded in which, after the removal of an ovarian adenoma, a new growth, described as ‘cancer of the cicatrix’, has formed in the scar. These growths are probably due to the soiling of the wound at the time of operation with epithelial fragments from the tumours.

After abdominal hysterectomy for cancer of the body of the uterus, or its cervix, the abdominal wound may become infected with this disease, and in cases where exploratory cœliotomy has been performed for diffuse cancerous disease of the peritoneum the cicatrix is liable to become permeated by malignant disease also.

References

CHAPTER XII

PREPARATION OF THE PATIENT FOR PERINEAL AND VAGINAL
OPERATIONS: OPERATIONS FOR INJURIES TO
THE PERINEUM AND PELVIC FLOOR

PREPARATION OF THE PATIENT

In operations upon the perineum and vagina, the same scrupulous precautions against sepsis should be taken as in abdominal section. Before proceeding to practical details, it will be useful to consider a few points regarding the distribution of bacteria in these parts. Not only the ordinary bacteria of the skin, but also those from the rectum, and, under certain conditions, from the urine and the vaginal secretion abound on the perineal and vulval surfaces. The healthy virgin vagina may be considered free from pathogenic organisms, harbouring only the harmless vaginal bacillus of Döderlein. After sexual congress the vagina contains pathogenic organisms, and in conditions such as carcinoma of the cervix and body of the uterus, and in all forms of vaginitis, many varieties of bacteria are present in great numbers.

The normal uterus is germ-free; in fact the external os uteri may be said to divide the bacteria-free from the bacteria-containing area of the genital canal. But in carcinoma and in the various forms of septic endometritis, the uterus not only contains many pathogenic bacteria, but acts also as a continual source of infection to the vagina and external genital organs. It follows, therefore, that this area may be exceedingly difficult to render sterile, and in certain conditions this is indeed impossible. None the less, every effort should be made to attain this object; for even if the organisms cannot be entirely removed, yet their numbers can be considerably reduced, and it must be remembered that the action of septic organisms is, to a great extent, directly proportionate to their numbers.

The same general principles apply to the preparation of patients for operations on the perineum and vagina as for operations on other parts of the body. Very particular attention, however, must be paid to the bowels; nothing is more prejudicial to the success of an operation, or more annoying to the operator, than to have the area of operation soiled by an escape of fæcal matter from an imperfectly emptied lower bowel. The aperient should be given at least 24 hours before the time of operation. A copious soap-and-water enema should follow after the usual interval, and, an hour or two beforehand, the lower bowel should be thoroughly washed out with a gentle stream of warm water.

Fig. 29. Patient prepared for Operation. In lithotomy position with crutch applied, Auvard’s speculum inserted, and volsella attached to the anterior lip of the cervix uteri. Kelly’s pad is omitted for sake of clearness. (From a photograph.)

The external genitals should be shaved, and washed with ethereal soap solution and hot water the day before the operation, then douched with a 1–2,000 solution of perchloride of mercury, and a compress, soaked in the same solution, laid over the vulva. After the enema has acted, and after the final wash-out, the washing and douching should be repeated and a fresh compress applied.

If there is any vaginal discharge, the vagina should be douched out three times a day for two or three days previous to the operation, with an antiseptic such as 1–4,000 perchloride of mercury, or 1% formalin. The healing of a perineal wound is considerably impaired if it be continually bathed in an unhealthy vaginal discharge.

When the patient is on the table and under the anæsthetic, the external parts should again receive a thorough final disinfection, and, in addition, the vagina should be thoroughly swabbed out with ethereal soap solution, by means of swabs on holders. A final douching with 1–2,000 perchloride of mercury completes the process.

In all cases of vaginal hysterectomy for carcinoma, particular attention must be paid to the preliminary disinfection of the vagina by means of douching for two or three days before the operation. The vagina is swarming with various kinds of bacteria, and by careful attention to these principles the risk of sepsis will be materially diminished.

After the above preparations have been carried out, the patient is anæsthetized and placed on the table in the lithotomy position, the legs being kept well apart and fixed by means of a crutch. The buttocks are brought well to the edge of the table, and a Kelly’s pad may be placed beneath them. The legs should be encased in sterilized towels or linen stockings, and towels placed on the hypogastrium (Fig. 29).

OPERATIONS FOR THE REPAIR OF COMPLETE LACERATION OF THE PERINEUM

Under the term colporrhaphy (suture of the vagina) is included any operation in which denudation and subsequent suturing of one or both walls of the vagina is carried out. Anterior colporrhaphy includes the various operations devised for cystocele; posterior colporrhaphy, the procedures carried out for incomplete rupture of the perineum (colpo-perineorrhaphy), prolapse of the pelvic floor, and to produce narrowing of the vagina.

Fig. 30. Complete Laceration of the Perineum. (From a photograph.) a, a'. Ends of torn sphincter ani. cli. Clitoris. l.i. Labium internum. m.v. Mons Veneris. p.c. Preputium clitoridis. sph. Sphincter ani. ur. Urethral orifice.

The appearance of the parts in this condition is quite characteristic (Fig. 30); the laceration of the recto-vaginal septum appears as a triangular space with its apex upwards, its sides equal, and its base formed by the retracted sphincter ani (Fig. 32). The separated ends of the sphincter are seen as two slightly depressed circular spots at the base of each side of the isosceles triangle a, a'. The object of the operation is to adapt these two ends, repair the recto-vaginal rent, and re-form the perineal body. There is often much irregular scar tissue about the opening, which may cause additional difficulty at the operation.

Fig. 31. Long-handled sharp-pointed Scissors curved on the flat.

The instruments necessary are six Spencer Wells artery forceps, long dissecting forceps with hooked points, a pair of sharp-pointed angular and a pair of sharp-pointed curved scissors (see Fig. 31), flat curved needles and Schauta’s needle-holder (Fig. 73).

The preparatory treatment consists in regular gentle purgation daily for a week, dieting, rest in bed for three days, and antiseptic vaginal douches of lysol (1 drachm to the quart).

Operation. The patient is placed in the dorsal position on a Kelly’s pad, and after the usual purification, denudation is commenced. The skin over the circular depressions corresponding to the ends of the severed sphincter (Fig. 30, a, a') is seized with the dissecting forceps and slightly raised. This portion of skin on either side is removed by means of the scissors, thus baring the ends of the sphincter and opening up the cellular tissue.

The point of one blade of the scissors is now buried in the cellular tissue at this bared spot on the operator’s right side, and is carried along the free torn edge of the recto-vaginal septum between the deep and superficial tissues until the apex of the laceration is reached. A similar incision is made on the opposite side.

The triangles of the vaginal flap are now raised by means of catch-forceps and the scissors passed carefully into the cellular tissue, and the recto-vaginal septum is split transversely, producing a raw surface somewhat the shape of a butterfly in outline (Fig. 33). A median extension of the denudation is made in an upward direction for another inch in length to form a supporting column. This flap may, if the tissues are sufficiently redundant, be removed along the line running at its base. The raw surface should be swabbed over carefully, and any bleeding points secured by ligatures. Large venous sinuses are very often opened, and, should the bleeding recur after the adaptation of the flaps, the operation will inevitably fail.

Fig. 32. Complete Laceration of the Perineum. Semi-diagrammatic drawing of a ruptured recto-vaginal septum, indicating the method of passing the sutures for its repair. r.m.m. Rectal mucous surface. sph. Torn end of sphincter ani. v.m.m. Vaginal mucous surface. The arrows indicate the direction of the sutures.

Closure of the recto-vaginal rent is first carried out by interrupted sutures, as is seen in the semi-diagrammatic drawing (Fig. 32). The threaded needle in a holder is passed from the rectal side of the flap through the flap on to the raw surface, then over the rent on to the raw surface of the other side; it finally finds its exit again on the rectal side of the flap. Four or more sutures may be passed in this way, a final one bringing the cut ends of the sphincter ani together. Each suture should be tied and the ends cut short before the next one is inserted, and the knots will lie just beneath the mucous membrane of the rectum.

Fig. 33. Complete Laceration of the Perineum. In A the ‘butterfly’ surface has been denuded and the recto-vaginal rent repaired (c).

a. Sutures passed through the sustaining column, but not tied.
b. The ‘buried’ spiral suture passed but not tied.

In B is shown the oval raw surface left to be brought together by sutures (d) after the buried suture (b') has been tied. (Diagrammatic.)

We have now a large butterfly raw surface to deal with. The extension corresponding to the head is first of all dealt with by four or more separate sutures (Fig. 33, a). The large raw surface is now reduced in size by the passage of a deeply buried suture (Fig. 33, b); those used in the preceding manœuvres are best of silk. The buried suture should be catgut, and is passed in a spiral direction, as is seen in the diagram; the area of the raw surface is very much reduced by it (Fig. 33, b').

The parts to be brought together will now present the appearance shown in Fig. 33, B, and they are approximated by means of silk sutures, which are entered on the skin surface on one side, passed beneath the raw surface, and made to emerge on the skin surface on the opposite side. Four to six of these may be inserted.

Great care must be taken to see that no bleeding points are left unsecured, and a current of hot 1 in 4,000 perchloride solution should be allowed to play over the surface, after which the sutures are tied. Each suture should be left about an inch and a half long in order to facilitate removal later on. A gauze drain should be passed into the vagina and an antiseptic gauze pad placed over the perineum.

After-treatment. The patient’s knees should be tied together, the urine drawn off by a catheter every six hours for the first 48 hours, and the wound kept as dry as possible. Throbbing and pain in the perineum with slight rise of temperature are generally indicative of suppuration taking place either between the flaps or along the sutures. A smart purge should be given on the morning of the third day and daily afterwards. If there are any scybala left in the rectum it is better to inject a little warm olive oil into it through a catheter before the bowels are expected to act.

The patient should be allowed to get up on the twenty-first day. There should be proper control of flatus and motions from the date of operation.

OPERATION FOR LACERATION OF THE PELVIC FLOOR

The objects of this operation are twofold: first, to secure the torn ends of the levator ani to the lateral vaginal sulcus and perineum; and, secondly, to draw up or lift the pelvic floor, which is more or less depressed.

Fig. 34. Laceration of the Pelvic Floor. The double triangular surface has been denuded. (Semi-diagrammatic, from a photograph.) The sutures, 1–5, on the operator’s right side are passed and tied; those on the left are passed but not tied. a. Anus c. Cervix h. Site of hymen. p1–p3. Sutures passed through the quadrilateral denuded surface. r. recto-vaginal wall. s. Speculum (Pozzi’s anterior retractor). t, t. Tenacula. The arrow denotes the direction in which the sutures are passed.

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position and a retractor is inserted in the anterior cul-de-sac in order to elevate the anterior vaginal wall: Fig. 34 shows the appearances then seen. The left forefinger or some gauze packing is placed in the rectum and a double triangular space is denuded by means of sharp-pointed scissors, the base line of the double triangle being formed by the hymen. Two tenacula are inserted as indicated in the drawing (Fig. 34, t, t). The mucous membrane is now removed from the M-shaped space, great care being taken to penetrate deeply into the lateral sulci. After all bleeding has been arrested in the usual manner, the sutures should be passed. On the left-hand side of the figure these are indicated as inserted, not tied, whereas on the right they are tied and cut. Subsequently the somewhat quadrilateral raw surface which is left is brought together by five deep sutures, and the operation is complete. A Y-shaped cicatrix will be the result.

Cases in which the perineum is apparently intact, but in which the sphincter is not united (Figs. 35, 36).

These are the cases in which a complete laceration of the perineum is apparently completely healed after operation, but the patient finds that she has incontinence both of flatus and fæces.

On inspection of Fig. 35 this will be well explained. The patient is lying on her back in the lithotomy position: a represents the sphincter which has been torn through; the two cut ends, b and c, are represented by two dark circular, somewhat depressed spots. The rectal orifice gapes; there is no sphincteric power present. The perineum anterior to the anus is firmly healed.

Operation. The most certain and effectual method in these cases is to split up the healed perineum antero-posteriorly and treat the case as one of complete laceration of the perineum (see p. 128). This has been carried out in the case represented in the illustration (Fig. 35), and Fig. 36 shows the result: the patient entirely recovered power over the sphincter ani and the sustaining power of the pelvic floor was much improved.

Fig. 35. Repair of a Lacerated Perineum, with Non-union of the Sphincter Ani, before a Plastic Operation. (From a photograph.) a. Ununited sphincter ani. b, c. Buried ends of torn sphincter.

Fig. 36. Repair of a Laceration of the Perineum after a Plastic Operation. (From a photograph.) a. Repaired sphincter ani. b. Anus. s. Resutured perineum.

CHAPTER XIII

OPERATIONS UPON THE URETHRA AND BLADDER

EXTIRPATION OF A URETHRAL CARUNCLE

Indications. A urethral caruncle is a bright red, tender tumour, usually on the posterior portion of the urethral orifice.

The symptoms requiring interference are pain on micturition, dyspareunia, bleeding and discomfort on movement, and, occasionally, retention of urine which is probably due to apprehension of pain rather than to any mechanical obstruction.

Operation. To be effectual this must be thorough, and may take the form of deep cauterization with a Paquelin’s cautery, or excision. The latter operation consists in excising a wedge-shaped piece of the posterior wall of the urethra containing the caruncle. Free bleeding will usually take place, which must be controlled by means of hæmostatic forceps. The edges of the wound are brought together by fine silk or catgut sutures, which must be passed completely through the raw surfaces to prevent recurrent hæmorrhage.

The after-treatment consists in keeping the wound as clean and dry as possible.

OPERATIONS FOR INCONTINENCE FOLLOWING LABOUR

This is probably due to injury to the pelvic floor and the anterior fibres of the levator ani, producing a backward displacement of the urethra.

Operation. The operation recommended by Dudley consists of first denuding the vaginal mucous membrane over a horseshoe-shaped space between the clitoris and the urethral orifice and then drawing the urethra forward with sutures passed through the anterior portion of the orifice and inserted near the clitoris. It will then be seen that the urethra is carried forward nearly an inch. The raw edges are brought together in the usual manner by catgut or silk sutures.

The author’s experience of this operation has been unsatisfactory on the whole, and he has obtained better results by the wearing of a ring pessary.

OPERATIONS FOR VESICO-VAGINAL FISTULA

For simple vesico-vaginal fistula. This condition is fortunately very rare at the present time. Many operations have been devised for this condition, but the original one recommended by Sims, with subsequent modifications, appears to the author to be most efficient and applicable to the large majority of varieties of this condition.

Preparatory treatment. The chief object is to obtain a healthy condition of the fistulous edges, which are nearly always inflamed, thickened, and covered by urinary deposits, usually of a phosphatic character. These are best removed by means of a soft sponge or cotton-wool, and the raw edges treated with a weak solution of nitrate of silver (gr. ij to the ounce). Hot vaginal douches of lysol solution (ʒj to a quart) should be given night and morning, and the parts freely smeared with vaseline to protect them from the action of the irritating urine. Any cicatricial tissue which may be present around the fistula should be treated by submucous division.

Fig. 37. Auvard’s Self-retaining Speculum.	Fig. 38. Knives for freshening the Edges of a Vesico-vaginal Fistula.
	Fig. 39. Toothed Forceps for use in Vesico-vaginal Fistula.

Fig. 40. Emmett’s Hook.

Operation. The instruments necessary are: a Sims’s or Auvard’s (Fig. 37) speculum; two flat spatulæ; three long-handled knives (Fig. 38), one with a long haft and a short straight narrow blade, and the others with angular blades (right and left); two long-handled, sharp-pointed, curved scissors (right and left); an Emmett’s hook for making counter-pressure (Fig. 40); toothed forceps (Fig. 39) and tenaculum; six Spencer Wells’s forceps; Schauta’s needle-holder (Fig. 73) with short curved needles.

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position. A strip of mucous membrane is then removed from the whole of the vaginal edge of the fistula by means of an angular knife. In the original operation Sims (Fig. 41) made the surface oblique, but Simon (Fig. 42) considered the raw surface should be at right angles to the mucous membrane. The blade of the knife should not wound the vesical mucous membrane.

Fig. 41. Sims’s Operation for the Repair of a Vesico-vaginal Fistula. a. Bladder mucous membrane. b. Vaginal wall. c. Suture passed but not tied. d. Section of denuded surface. e, e'. Liberating incisions. f. The fistula.

Fig. 42. Simon’s Operation for the Repair of a Vesico-vaginal Fistula. Letters as in the preceding figure.

After the bleeding has ceased, the sutures, which may be of silk or catgut, are passed by means of the needle through the pared edge of the fistula on one side, passing across the fistula, and piercing the raw surface on the opposite side. The entry of the needle should be made about 1/4 – 1/3 of an inch from the raw edge (Fig. 44). Emmett’s hook, shaped like a button-hook, is useful to produce counter-pressure against the needle point. The sutures are tied, and milk is injected into the bladder to test the accuracy of the union.

As a rule, fistulæ are bounded by rather scanty and inelastic walls, owing to the presence of cicatricial tissue; it is therefore more advantageous not to remove any tissue in order to produce a raw surface, or as little as possible. To fulfil this condition, the method of dédoublement or flap-splitting, as practised by Walcher, may be carried out (Fig. 43, A, B, and C).

Fig. 43. Repair of a Vesico-vaginal Fistula by Dédoublement.

A. The flap-splitting stage.
B. The flaps separated and the suture passed.
C. Suture tied, approximating the flaps.
a. Bladder mucous membrane.
b. Vaginal wall.
c. Suture.
e, e'. Liberating incisions.
k, k'. Flap-splitting incisions.

In A the flap-splitting is seen in section (k, k'); in B the flaps have been everted towards the bladder and vagina respectively and the suture passed. In C this suture has been tied; liberating incisions, e, e', have been made on the vaginal surface to prevent tension in the wound.

The patient is placed, as before, in the lithotomy position, and the cervix is pulled down, while the edges of the fistula are kept steady by a volsella on either side. The margin of the orifice is then split all round to a depth of from a quarter to half an inch. Vesical and vaginal mucous membrane flaps are thus produced, giving a large raw surface without any loss of substance. The sutures are passed as shown in Fig. 43, C.

Fig. 44. Repair of a Vesico-vaginal Fistula. Sims’s Operation. The edge of the fistula has been denuded and the sutures have been passed. a.v.w. Anterior vaginal wall. cl. Clitoris. s', s''. Retractors. sp. Posterior speculum. t. Tenaculum. u. Orifice of urethra. v.v.f. Vesico-vaginal fistula.

After-treatment. This is very simple: if the patient is able, she should pass water, either in the dorsal or genu-pectoral position, otherwise a catheter should be passed every six hours.

Modifications of this operation have been devised, more especially for the larger fistulæ: they will be briefly mentioned.

1. Repair by turning up vaginal flaps to form the base of the bladder is recommended by A. Martin of Berlin. He first frees the adherent edges of the fistula and then raises the flaps from the vaginal wall and brings them over the opening, suturing them carefully together. By this method the mucous membrane of the vagina forms the new lining to the bladder, and the exposed raw surface a new anterior vaginal wall. The edges of this latter denuded surface are united by sutures, as in the operation of colporrhaphy.

2. Closure of the fistula by detaching the bladder from the vagina and suturing it independently is described and practised by Mackenrodt.

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position, and the fistula is exposed: the cervix is drawn downwards and backwards by means of a wire loop or tenaculum, and the urethral prominence held with a pair of hooked forceps. An incision is then made in the median line extending across the fistula and through the vaginal walls down to the bladder, in this way exposing the entire base of the bladder. The edges of the fistula are then split so that the bladder and the vaginal walls are separated. The two vesical flaps are now carefully and separately sutured by catgut and the edges of the vaginal wound are brought together as much as possible: if necessary, the fundus of the uterus may be used to assist in closing the opening.

For vesico-utero-vaginal or juxta-cervical fistula. In this affection the cervix is involved, and it must therefore be carefully differentiated from the vesico-vaginal variety, in which the cervix is intact.

In operating upon such cases the chief difficulty will be found in denuding the surfaces necessary for the introduction of the sutures, owing to the density of the cicatricial tissues, which are always present. This is best overcome by drawing the cervix forcibly downwards and backwards and incising the anterior cul-de-sac; the bladder wall with its fistulous opening is then dissected off the anterior surface of the cervix and carefully sutured independently of the cervical laceration; the latter is treated by suture in the usual way (see p. 128). In the deeper forms of juxta-cervical fistula, the above technique is impossible, and suprapubic incision and suture of the bladder must be substituted.

RECTO-VAGINAL FISTULA

This condition may be defined as an opening between the rectum and vagina through which flatus, or fæces, or both, may pass from the former into the latter; it is chiefly the result of an imperfect union subsequent to an operation for complete perineum laceration. It may also be caused by the rupture of a pelvic abscess or by the spread of primary malignant disease of the rectal wall.

Operation. If the sphincter ani is incompletely united, it will be found much the most satisfactory proceeding to divide the healed portions of the perineum and make a complete perineal laceration; this may then be treated as described above (see p. 128).

If, however, the sphincter is intact and serviceable the fistula should be pared and the edges brought together by silk sutures. It is not infrequently necessary to perform a temporary colostomy (see Vol. II) in order to divert the fæcal contents of the bowel during the process of healing.

OPERATIONS FOR CYSTOCELE

In cystocele there is prolapse of the anterior vaginal wall and the corresponding area of the posterior bladder wall. Cystocele often complicates rectocele and prolapsus uteri, and operation upon it is often carried out in combination with colpo-perineorrhaphy.

Operation. The operation for the cure of this affection is very simple, and may be performed:—

(1) By denuding an oval space over the swelling and bringing the raw edges together.

(2) By Stoltz’s operation, which is really purse-string suture.

The instruments necessary are a bladder sound, two tenacula, sharp-pointed angular scissors, a needle-holder and fine silk.

(1) The parts are exposed with a Sims’s or Auvard’s speculum and a volsella, or silver wire is passed through the cervix, by means of which traction downwards and backwards may be exerted. The cystocele itself is fixed by tenacula, and, with the sound in the bladder, an oval incision is carried completely round the base of the cystocele. The whole area contained in this incision is denuded by knife or scissors, care being taken to avoid wounding the bladder mucous membrane.

Any bleeding having been controlled, a spiral buried suture, as in the operation for perineorrhaphy (see p. 128), is passed antero-posteriorly, thus reducing the size of the raw area and making a solid support in the median line. The raw edges are then brought together by sutures. The catheter should be passed every eight hours for three days, and then the patient should be allowed to micturate on her hands and knees.

Fig. 45. Stoltz’s Operation for Cystocele. The oval surface has been denuded and the circumferential suture passed but not tied. 1,1',2,3. The four points first selected as boundaries for denudation. s. Suture, the arrows denoting the direction in which it is passed. sp. Retractor. t. Tenaculum. u. Urethral orifice.

(2) Stoltz’s operation. The instruments necessary are: a No. 8 male bladder sound; two tenacula; hooked forceps; sharp-pointed angular scissors, and a needle-holder (Schauta’s for preference).

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position and the parts are exposed by means of an Auvard’s speculum. A silver wire or tenaculum is passed through the posterior lip of the cervix, by means of which downward and backward traction may be exerted. Four points must be selected: two lateral (Fig. 45, 1, 1'), fixing the external boundaries of the surface to be denuded; one immediately behind the orifice of the urethra (2); and a fourth in front of the cervix (3). These four points should be capable of close approximation. They are carefully joined by curved incisions so that the area to be denuded is almost oval in shape. The bladder sound is now passed, and the mucous membrane of the vagina kept on the stretch by pressure on its point. The process of denudation should be carried out with a scalpel or pointed curved scissors. It will be found that bleeding rarely gives any trouble. The point of the needle threaded with silk is inserted on the operator’s right side of the urethral orifice and a little below it; it pierces the mucous membrane on the left side of the median line, and again appears upon the surface. By an in-and-out stitch all the way round the circle which has been pared, the point finally issues on the operator’s left side of the urethra and below it: by traction on these two ends the edges of the denuded surface are drawn together and the prolapsed bladder is sutured in its normal situation. A puckered cicatrix results. This method is valuable for prolapsus uteri when combined with the operation of posterior colporrhaphy.

CHAPTER XIV

OPERATIONS UPON THE VULVA AND VAGINA

OPERATIONS UPON BARTHOLIN’S GLANDS

The glands of Bartholin, or the vulvo-vaginal glands, are two racemose structures about the size of a pea, lodged between the layers of the triangular ligament, one on each side of the orifice of the vagina. Their ducts open a little in front of the fossa navicularis, on each side of the vaginal orifice, in the groove between the attached border of the hymen and the labium minus.

Removal of a cyst of Bartholin’s gland. These cysts really arise in the ducts rather than in the gland itself. The orifice of the main duct is very liable to become blocked from inflammation of the vulva, and leads to the formation of a single cyst varying in size from a cherry to an orange. Less common is the blocking of the secondary ducts, wherefrom a collection of small cysts results. The cyst forms a characteristic tense ovoid or pyriform swelling in the posterior third of the labium majus. The chief symptoms the patient complains of are discomfort in walking and pain on coitus.

Operation. The best procedure is complete excision of the cyst. A longitudinal incision is made over its cutaneous surface, and the cyst carefully dissected out, together with the gland itself: care must be taken not to perforate the vaginal mucous membrane stretched over the inner surface of the cyst. Brisk bleeding from vessels at the base of the cyst, usually follows from the cavity which contained the cyst and this must be carefully arrested, otherwise a large hæmatoma may result. The cavity is closed by five or six interrupted catgut sutures, passing deeply through its sides and floor, so as to ensure complete closure. A gauze drain may be inserted and retained for twenty-four hours.

The method of incising the cyst, swabbing its interior with undiluted carbolic acid, and packing it with gauze is not to be recommended, for cure is neither so rapid nor so certain as in excision.

Incision of an abscess of Bartholin’s gland. Abscesses arise by infection passing into the gland along the ducts, and are a very frequent accompaniment of gonorrhœa. The orifice of the duct can usually be seen red and prominent, and may exude pus if pressure be made over the abscess-sac. Sometimes the abscess bursts and spontaneous recovery may follow, but it is very liable to recur, for infection lurks among the smaller ducts and is carried to a fresh part of the gland, and the process may continue until the whole gland has been thus destroyed.

Operation. The abscess must be freely incised and all pockets and septa broken down. It is stuffed with iodoform gauze, which is changed daily, and the cavity is allowed to granulate up from the bottom. If the abscess recurs, or if it consists only of a small collection of pus surrounded by brawny œdema, the whole gland should be excised.

OPERATIONS FOR ATRESIA OF THE HYMEN AND THE VAGINA

Occlusion of the hymen is the commonest form observed. The vagina becomes slowly distended with blood, forming an elastic pelvic swelling (hæmato-colpos) upon which the uterus is, so to speak, perched. Later in the course of the disease, this organ itself (hæmato-metra) and the Fallopian tubes (hæmato-salpinx) may become affected similarly.

Indications. In atresia of the hymen symptoms only commence after puberty; there is then congenital amenorrhœa with periodic pelvic pain and gradual formation of a pelvic swelling. On inspection the hymen is distended and the blood-tumour above it gives a bluish tint to its surface.

Operation. After administration of an anæsthetic, careful palpation of the tubes should be made per rectum: if they are distended it is better to open the abdomen, ligature and remove them; if not, the hymen should be incised by means of a crucial opening and the characteristic tarry fluid allowed to escape: no hypogastric pressure should be used.

Irrigation and packing with gauze may be resorted to as after-treatment, but are considered unnecessary by a large number of operators.

Atresia of the vagina may be congenital or acquired. In the latter case the condition results from contraction of adhesions developed from damage done during labour; or it may follow acute septic vaginitis, the introduction of acids or irritating materials to produce abortion, or as a sequel to typhoid fever.

Treatment is by slow dilatation with Hegar’s bougies over an extended period of time; relapse is common.

DILATATION OF THE VULVAL ORIFICE

Indications. This is done for vaginismus due to a pathological spasm of the levator ani and resulting in more or less complete obstruction to coitus.

Fig. 46. Sims’s Vaginal Rest.

Operation. Under an anæsthetic the vulval orifice should be thoroughly dilated by means of the thumbs, and for some days subse quently graduated Sims’s ‘vaginal rests’ (Fig. 46) should be inserted twice daily and worn for twenty minutes at a time. This treatment may be necessary for a fortnight or longer. In many cases of dyspareunia the cause will be found to be due to a thick, fleshy, and unruptured hymen or to tenderness about the remnants of that organ. Under these circumstances, exsection is the better plan to pursue. The hymen is seized with a pair of toothed forceps and removed with curved scissors along its entire base of attachment. Free bleeding often occurs from the raw surface, which must be controlled by ligatures. The two almost parallel cut edges must then be carefully brought together either by continuous or interrupted suture.

COLPOTOMY OR VAGINAL CŒLIOTOMY

By colpotomy is meant making an opening into the peritoneal cavity through the vagina; the operation is known as anterior or posterior colpotomy, according to whether the opening is made through the anterior or posterior fornix.

Colpotomy has certain advantages over abdominal section. There is less interference with the peritoneum and intestines, and therefore less shock; if pus is present, there is less risk of infecting the general peritoneal cavity, and better drainage; there is no abdominal scar, and therefore no risk of hernia; lastly, there are certain pathological products which can be more easily reached by this route. The operation is difficult in a nullipara, where the vagina is narrow, and easier in a multipara, where the vagina is more capacious, and it is still easier if the cervix can be drawn down as far as the vaginal orifice.

A serious disadvantage is that, during the course of the operation, it may be found impossible to deal adequately with the conditions for which the operation is being performed; in the case of a tumour, for instance, its size, position, or the presence of adhesions may render it necessary to complete the operation by the abdominal route. Further, in more than one instance, the abdomen has had to be opened after the completion of the operation on account of bleeding, the source of which could not be dealt with by the vagina.

Therefore, before deciding upon the removal of a tumour by colpotomy, all the above points must be taken into consideration.

Indications. When the above conditions are fulfilled, colpotomy is suitable for:—

(i) The evacuation of collections of pus or blood in Douglas’s pouch.

(ii) The removal of fibro-myomata, ovarian tumours of small size, and early tubal pregnancies.

(iii) The drainage of collections of pus or the removal of the appendages in cases of acute inflammation where immediate operation is necessary.

(iv) Conservative operations upon the Fallopian tubes or ovaries.

(v) A preliminary to the performance of vaginal hysteropexy.

(vi) Those cases in which the patient’s general condition is unfavourable to the performance of exploration by the abdominal route.

Anterior colpotomy is more suitable for removing small tumours growing from the anterior wall of the uterus, or for conservative operations on the ovaries. Posterior colpotomy is more suitable for removing inflamed appendages, and for evacuating collections of pus or blood from Douglas’s pouch.

Fig. 47. Pozzi’s Retractors.

Posterior colpotomy has been used for many years for the opening of abscesses and hæmatoceles in Douglas’s pouch. The anterior operation is of more recent date, and its relative advantages and disadvantages and the indications for its use have not yet been definitely agreed upon by the majority of gynæcologists. Taking all things into consideration, the disadvantages of colpotomy seem to outweigh its advantages, and, except for the evacuation or drainage of collections of blood or pus behind the uterus, the operation may be said to have few indications.

Fig. 48. Anterior Colpotomy.

The patient is in the lithotomy position, the speculum is passed and the cervix pulled down by a tenaculum. The T-shaped incision has been made.

b. Outline of bladder.
c. Cervix.
cl. Clitoris.
l.m. Labium minus.
sp. Speculum.
u. Urethral orifice.
v,v',v''. Volsella.

Anterior colpotomy. A posterior Pozzi’s (Fig. 47) or Péan’s retractor is passed into the vagina, and the cervix is seized with a volsella and drawn downwards and backwards. A sound passed into the bladder defines its lower limit. A T-shaped incision is now made through the vaginal mucous membrane, the transverse portion just below the point to which the bladder has been found to extend (Fig. 48, b). This incision should pass completely through the vaginal mucous membrane, but no further, and should extend across the whole width of the anterior surface of the cervix. Some operators use a simple longitudinal or a transverse incision. The vaginal mucous membrane is now carefully pushed upwards with the pulp of the finger until the lower limit of the bladder is defined. Great help is gained at this stage by the use of the bladder sound. On pushing up the vaginal mucous membrane still further the peritoneum is reached, and is recognized by its white glistening appearance, and by the fact that its two opposed surfaces glide freely over one another under the finger. The next step is to open the peritoneum: it is picked up with catch-forceps, and a small transverse incision is made into it with a pair of scissors; the finger is passed through, and the incision is extended on either side, care being taken not to pass too far outwards for fear of injuring the ureters or uterine vessels.

After the peritoneum has been opened, the pelvic organs can be carefully examined with the fingers, and the purposes for which the operation has been undertaken can be proceeded with. The next step usually consists in drawing out the fundus of the uterus, by which much more room and much better access to the pelvic organs is gained. To accomplish this, the uterus is caught with a volsella in the middle line, as high up as possible, and drawn downwards and forwards. If necessary, a second volsella is applied above the first, and so on, until the uterus is delivered. A very complete examination of the appendages can now be made, for the tubes and ovaries can be drawn out of the wound and examined directly.

When the object of the operation has been attained, and all the blood has been carefully removed by swabs, the next and final step consists in closing the peritoneal and vaginal wounds. The uterus is replaced, and the peritoneal incision is closed by a single layer of catgut sutures; the vaginal incision is similarly dealt with. The vagina is cleared from blood-clot and gently irrigated with an antiseptic solution. A gauze plug is inserted lightly, and the patient is put back to bed. The catheter should be used every six or eight hours for the first twenty-four hours.

Posterior colpotomy. A posterior speculum is passed and the cervix drawn downwards and slightly forwards with a volsella. A transverse incision is then made through the vaginal mucous membrane at the junction of the posterior fornix with the cervix. This exposes the peritoneum more or less easily, and this structure is picked up with catch-forceps, and a transverse incision made into it with scissors; a finger is passed through this, and the incision is extended on either side. The pelvic organs can now be explored and the tubes and ovaries drawn down and examined. The peritoneal and vaginal incisions are then closed by separate layers of catgut sutures.

To open a collection of pus in Douglas’s pouch, the best method is to pass a pair of sinus-forceps, with the blades closed, into the most prominent part of the swelling. The blades are then opened and the forceps withdrawn. The finger passed into the abscess cavity gently breaks down any adhesions. The cavity is then irrigated with hot salt solution and a drainage tube inserted, which projects just outside the vulva: the lower end of the tube should be carefully packed around with cyanide gauze. The tube should be changed every day and the vagina douched with an antiseptic. Another method is to plunge a Martin’s trochar (Fig. 49) into any softened spot in the swelling and then withdraw the needle, leaving a blunt dilating forceps to extend the opening.

Fig. 49. Martin’s Trochar for Pelvic Abscess.

In opening an abscess, the most stringent precautions against sepsis should be observed. The vagina must be most carefully prepared beforehand, by rubbing over with swabs and ethereal soap, and by a subsequent copious douche of 1 in 1,000 perchloride of mercury: otherwise continual reinfection of the abscess cavity occurs, and healing is much delayed.

Lateral colpotomy—Paravaginal section.

Indications. The object of the operation is to increase the amount of room in the vagina in certain cases of vaginal hysterectomy in elderly virgins, or in women who have a small vagina.

Operation. The same preliminaries are carried out as before. The incision is carried completely round the cervix at its junction with the vagina. The lateral margin of the vulva is then held tense, and an incision is made, beginning at the circumcervical incision running down the lateral vaginal wall, through the margin of the vulva and on to the skin externally, ending at a point midway between the perineum and the ischial tuberosity, i.e. about 1½ inches to the side, and in front of the perineum; the incision may be lateral only or bilateral. In sewing up, it is important to reunite the cut edges of the levator ani, or pelvic weakness will result.

CHAPTER XV

OPERATIONS UPON THE UTERUS

PASSAGE OF THE UTERINE SOUND

This is an operation which is much less frequently resorted to than formerly, owing partly to the risks of sepsis attending its performance and partly to the greater perfection of the bimanual examination. Passing the uterine sound should always be looked upon as a surgical operation. The facts learnt by the use of the sound are: (1) the length and direction of the uterine cavity; (2) the condition of the endometrium: bleeding as a rule follows withdrawal in fibro-myomata and endometrial disease; (3) whether a fibroid growth is projecting into the uterine cavity, and if so, how much.

Fig. 50. The Passage of the Uterine Sound. Introduction of the point into the external os uteri.

Fig. 51. The Passage of the Uterine Sound. Commencement of the tour de maître.

The sound may be passed in the dorsal position (Fig. 61), the cervix being held by a volsella and exposed by means of a posterior speculum, or in the left lateral position, the method usually adopted in the consulting room. In the latter the right index-finger is passed up to the anterior lip of the cervix, the sterilized sound is taken in the left hand with its concavity backwards and its bulbous end is slid gently along the palmar surface of the finger in the vagina until the os uteri externum is reached; through this it should be passed for about a quarter of an inch (Fig. 50). The instrument should now be steadied by the thumb and the two distal joints of the second finger of the right hand, and its subsequent movements controlled by the left (Fig. 51).

If the uterus is in a state of retroversion, the bulbous end will gradually enter the uterine cavity by pressing the handle of the sound forward and at the same time giving an upward and slightly backward impulse to its tip; the rough surface of the handle will be found to be looking towards the sacrum. Should the uterus be anteverted, the handle is held in the left hand as before and passed through an arc of a circle by raising the handle and turning it forward until it lies beneath the symphysis pubis, in the median line (tour de maître) (Fig. 52). The rough surface of the handle now looks anteriorly and the bulbous end is pressing against the internal os uteri; now bring back the handle directly to the perineum and it will glide into the uterine cavity (Fig. 53).

Fig. 52. The Passage of the Uterine Sound. Completion of the tour de maître.

Fig. 53. The Passage of the Uterine Sound. Entry of the sound into the uterine cavity.

Difficulties to be met with will be: (1) An acutely anteflexed uterus; if traction is made on the cervix with a volsella the canal is straightened and the difficulty overcome. (2) Spasmodic contraction of the internal os uteri; this soon passes off with a little steady pressure. (3) A fibroid may project into the lumen of the canal. (4) Congenital or acquired stenosis of the external os uteri.

When there is a septic discharge from the vagina, the sound should be passed in the dorsal position and through a speculum.

REPOSITION OF A CHRONIC UTERINE INVERSION

Indications. Chronic inversion of the uterus, with severe hæmorrhage and bearing-down pain. The uterine fundus presents in the vagina and simulates a fibroid polypus in process of extrusion.

Operation. This is most likely to be successful if continuous pressure be brought to bear against the inverted fundus while an attempt is made simultaneously to dilate the contracted cervix.

Fig. 54. Chronic Uterine Inversion. Aveling’s repositor in place with elastic cords A, B, and C, in action.

The patient is placed under an anæsthetic in the dorsal position and the whole hand is passed gradually into the vagina. The tips of the fingers and thumb should be pressed into the circular space at which the flexion of the walls of the body on the cervix has occurred. With the palm of the hand upward pressure is made, counter-pressure being exerted by the other hand over the lower hypogastrium. Reduction usually begins by a slight dimpling of the inverted fundus.

A more scientific method of exerting continuous pressure is by the application of Aveling’s sigmoid repositor and elastic cords (Fig. 54). This instrument consists of a vulcanite cup into which is secured a steel S-shaped rod terminating below in a loop. The cup is made of various sizes and should always be smaller than the inverted fundus over which it fits.

After it has been applied, the instrument is carefully packed round with gauze to keep it in place. Two elastic bands in front and two behind are fastened by one end to the steel loop and by the other end to an abdominal belt. By this means constant and direct pressure is obtained on the fundus uteri in the direction of the pelvic axis.

Pain is usual and must be relieved by morphine. The cup usually elevates the fundus and corrects the inversion in about twenty-four hours, but as much as three days has been occupied in the process.

CURETTING THE UTERUS—CURETTAGE

The term ‘curetting’ is applied to the operation of scraping away the lining membrane of the uterus, either for the relief of some pathological condition or for diagnostic purposes.

The endometrium is not removed in its entirety by curetting, for the uterine glands dip down to a slight extent between the muscle fibres of the uterine wall. The endometrium is removed as far down as the muscular coat, and, consequently, those parts of the glands lying amongst the muscular fibres are left intact.

Indications. These may be divided into the cases in which the operation is (1) Remedial and (2) Diagnostic in nature.

The diseased states of the endometrium are many and their exact pathology is still under discussion. It is, therefore, more practical to consider the remedial indications for curetting from the point of view of symptoms.

(i) Uterine hæmorrhage is the chief symptom which calls for curetting. The causes of the hæmorrhage may be certain forms of endometritis. Thus hæmorrhage is a prominent symptom of the so-called ‘hypertrophic glandular endometritis’, a diffuse overgrowth or adenomatous condition of the endometrium, probably the after-result of a previous inflammation. There is one form which gives rise to specially profuse hæmorrhage—the ‘polypoid’ or ‘villous’ form, which arises usually in women over forty years of age.

The hæmorrhage from fibro-myoma of the uterus may require removal of the endometrium in order to relieve the bleeding temporarily at any rate. When milder measures fail, curetting is of great service in arresting the profuse menorrhagia which so often accompanies subinvolution of the uterus.

Certain cases in which the actual cause of the hæmorrhage is not evident are relieved by curetting; amongst these are such conditions as arterio-sclerosis of the uterine vessels.

(ii) A leucorrhœal discharge is another symptom for which curetting is sometimes indicated.

It may be called for when the endometrium is congested and œdematous from such conditions as displacements of the uterus and chronic subinvolution.

It is better not to curette for a purulent uterine discharge; extension of the infection may be caused and give rise to pyosalpinx.

(iii) Sterility. Curetting should follow dilatation, in the hope that the new endometrium formed may afford a better nidus for the ovum.

(iv) Frequent abortion in the early months. Curetting often cures this by removing the diseased endometrium.

(v) Inoperable carcinoma of the cervix. Removal of the redundant portions of the growth by the curette, followed by cauterization or other measures, relieves the hæmorrhage and foul discharge. Great caution must be exercised, lest the peritoneum or bladder be opened into by the curette and the sufferings of the patient thereby increased. Cells of the disease may also be pushed into the pelvic lymphatics; considerable febrile disturbance may also follow the operation. In this condition a blunt curette (Fig. 60, B) may be gently used; the same instrument is safest in abortion up to the eighth week of pregnancy; after this date it is better to use the fingers only.

Fragments removed by the curette are subjected to microscopical examination for diagnostic purposes. The various conditions which may have to be diagnosed are:—

1. Carcinoma of the body of the uterus.

2. Retained products of conception.

3. Tuberculosis of the endometrium.

4. Chorio-epithelioma malignum.

Operation. The following instruments are required: a volsella (Fig. 55); a self-retaining weighted speculum (Fig. 37); uterine dilators (Figs. 56, 57); a uterine sound; a Bozemann’s tube (Fig. 58); Budin’s celluloid catheter (Fig. 59); and one or other flushing curettes.

Fig. 55. Volsella for fixing the Cervix.	Fig. 57. Metal Bougies for dilatation of the Cervix. a. As used by the author. b. Ends of bougies considered unsuitable.
Fig. 56. Hegar’s Dilators (three sizes) for dilatation of the Cervix Uteri.

Fig. 58. Bozemann’s Double-channelled Tube.

Fig. 59. Budin’s Celluloid Catheter.

There are many varieties of curettes, and each has its own adherents. The most generally useful is Murray’s sharp flushing curette, which has a groove for the recurrent flow (Fig. 60, A). There are many varieties of blunt curettes. The model depicted in Fig. 60, B, enables the operator to clear out the uterine cornua and is of the best shape.

Fig. 60. a, Murray’s Flushing Curette; b, Blunt Curette.

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position and the various antiseptic precautions already described are carried out. A speculum is passed and the cervix is steadied by a volsella applied to the anterior lip.

The cervix is first dilated up to a suitable degree for the passage of the curette; up to No. 12 Hegar is usually sufficient. The curette is now taken and passed into the uterus. In performing the operation a definite plan should always be followed so as to ensure that no part of the uterine cavity is missed. The curette is passed up to the top of the fundus uteri with its cutting edge directed to the posterior wall. It is then drawn downwards with steady pressure to just below the internal os. It is then again passed upwards and the manœuvre repeated with just sufficient change of direction to ensure the curette passing over fresh tissue. This is repeated until the whole of the posterior wall has been thoroughly dealt with from side to side. The anterior wall and sides of the uterus are then treated in turn in the same way. Finally the fundus is curetted by a lateral movement of the instrument, especial attention being paid to the Fallopian tube angles, which are very apt to escape the curette.

A rasping or grating sound indicates that the endometrium over a given part has been removed and that the muscular walls have been reached. In spite of the most careful attention it is very difficult to remove the endometrium completely. If a uterus be scraped, as it is thought, thoroughly, and be examined post mortem, strips of mucous membrane will often be found untouched, showing the difficulties of complete removal.

After the operation an intra-uterine douche of 1 in 2,000 perchloride of mercury or some other suitable antiseptic is given with a Bozemann’s tube or Budin’s catheter. If a flushing curette has been used, this of course has already been done. After the douche, some application may be made to the interior of the uterus: the best is iodized phenol (liquid carbolic acid, 2 parts; tincture of iodine, 1 part). To do this the interior of the uterus is first dried with a Playfair’s probe armed with cotton-wool; another similar probe is then taken, dipped into the solution, and passed into the uterus. The vagina is protected by inserting a plug of cotton-wool into the posterior fornix. The uterus is then lightly packed with ribbon gauze. If there is hæmorrhage, the packing should be firmer, and a vaginal tampon should be placed in below the cervix. The packing should be removed in twenty-four hours. The patient may get up at the end of a week and resume her ordinary duties in a fortnight.

DILATATION OF THE CERVIX

Indications. Dilatation may be performed:—

Contra-indications to the rapid method of dilatation of the cervix are very few: a recent attack of peri- or parametritis would certainly be one, but when the effects of a salpingitis have quieted down there seems very little reason against its use. Where carcinoma of the body of the uterus is known to exist, and in old age, it should only be resorted to with the greatest caution, if at all.

Methods:—

(a) Rapid dilatation by means of graduated metal bougies.

(b) Gradual dilatation by means of tents.

(c) Combined gradual and rapid dilatation.

In a large majority of cases rapid dilatation is the operation selected. Its one disadvantage is that when a great degree of dilatation is necessary, or when the operation is performed too rapidly, the cervix is liable to be torn, an event which is especially liable to occur when the tissues of the cervix are rigid. These lacerations are longitudinal in direction and in the neighbourhood of the internal os uteri. They sometimes result in hæmorrhage, which can easily be controlled by plugging the cervical canal. Unless strict asepsis be maintained, these lacerations of course form a channel for infection of the pelvic cellular tissue.

It is obvious that dilatation will be easier to perform, and laceration less liable to occur, if the cervix is in a softened condition—a physiological state which is always present during pregnancy and labour. Efforts should therefore be directed, when possible, to ensure a soft state of the cervix before performing rapid dilatation.

Immediately after the cessation of a period, the cervix is soft and somewhat patent, and advantage may be taken of this fact. The introduction of a glycerine tampon two hours beforehand produces a certain amount of softening. But nothing ensures so much softening as the introduction of a tent into the cervix about twelve hours previous to the rapid dilatation.

It is therefore recommended in all cases, where possible, to perform dilatation by this latter means, viz. a combination of the gradual and rapid methods.

Rapid dilatation by means of graduated metal bougies. Hegar’s original dilators (Fig. 56) were solid vulcanite bougies, graduated from 1 to 26, the numbers corresponding to the diameter of the bougie in millimetres. Each was 5¼ inches in length, the handle measuring 1½ inches and the bougie the remainder. The bougie formed a slight curve and tapered off to a blunt point.

These bougies were rather short and too sharply pointed, and they could not be sterilized by boiling. To overcome these disadvantages, uterine dilators are now made about the same length as a male catheter, with a sharper curve than Hegar’s original one, and a blunter point; the larger sizes are of hollow metal for the sake of lightness. There are many varieties of dilator, each with minor differences as to length, curve, handle, and shape of the point.

The author uses metal bougies. These have somewhat the shape of the ordinary uterine sound, are thirty-five in number, and graduated in size. Like the sound, the upper portion is bent at an angle of about 160° with the solid handle, a circular shallow depression indicating the 2½ inch mark in the smaller numbers; in the larger this is not considered necessary.

Fig. 61. Dilatation of the Cervix. The patient is in the lithotomy position. Auvard’s speculum has been inserted, a volsella attached to the anterior cervical lip and a bougie passed. (From a photograph.)

d. Right hand inserting bougie.
s. Speculum.
v. Volsella.

Operation. Instruments: an Auvard’s self-retaining weighted flushing speculum; a volsella; a Bozemann’s tube or Budin’s catheter; a uterine sound; and a set of dilators.

The patient is anæsthetized and placed in the lithotomy position with the legs supported by a crutch. Strict asepsis must be observed; the labia must be shorn of long hairs; this is followed by cleansing of the vagina and a vaginal douche, and finally the vulva is washed with antiseptic lotion. The speculum is passed and held by an assistant, but if self-retaining, as in Fig. 61, the assistant is not necessary: a sound is then inserted to ascertain the length and direction of the uterine cavity. If anteflexion be present, the anterior lip of the cervix should be seized with the volsella and fixed by slight traction. If retroversion or retroflexion be present, then the posterior lip should be fixed. Traction by the volsella tends to straighten out the uterine canal, and thus makes the passage of the bougies easier. The bougies are now passed in order, commencing with the size which will pass easily. The bougie is passed by means of the right hand into the cervical canal until the internal os uteri is reached; resistance will now be felt. Firm and continuous pressure in the proper direction must be made, and in a short time the resistance gives way, and the bougie will pass into the uterine cavity. An interstitial fibroid produces a tortuous channel and much difficulty will often be experienced in passing a bougie in such a case. It will be found on attempting to withdraw the instrument that it is grasped by the internal os uteri; in the course of one to five minutes this spasm will relax, and only then should the bougie be withdrawn. The next in size should be ready and introduced in the same manner, and the succeeding ones are inserted until the required dilatation is produced. Sterilized vaseline or glycerine of perchloride of mercury may be smeared over the point of the dilator to facilitate its passage. Each succeeding bougie should increase in size by not more than 1 mm.: occasionally a case is met with where this seems too large a difference, and it is really better to have them made with a ½ mm. difference. As a preliminary to the use of the curette, dilatation up to No. 12 Hegar is necessary. The index-finger can be introduced into the uterine cavity after the passage of No. 19 or 20 Hegar, while full dilatation up to No. 26 is required for any operation with scissors or the écraseur on intra-uterine growths.

It is evident that the degree of dilatation for exploratory purposes will be governed by the diameter of the operator’s finger, or rather of its second joint, and this varies very much in different people. By means of the finger a uterus can be explored in which the cavity is much longer than the operator’s finger, if the viscus be forced down on to the finger by the pressure of the other hand above the symphysis pubis. The operator must not be satisfied until he has felt the whole extent of the uterine wall, especially the two cornua, which are favourite seats of disease. After completion of the operation it is well to give an antiseptic intra-uterine douche by means of a Bozemann’s tube. The uterus and cervix should be lightly packed with sterile ribbon gauze, 1 inch wide; the free end is left projecting through the os uteri. The packing should be removed in twenty-four hours, and an antiseptic douche given.

Difficulties and dangers. The difficulty due to non-dilatability is overcome by means of the preliminary use of a tent. The complication produced by a fibroid, altering the direction of the uterine canal, has been mentioned. Extreme anteflexion or retroflexion gives trouble during the passage of the earlier numbers, but as dilatation is effected this disappears.

The dangers are:—

1. Laceration of the cervix.

2. Rupture of the uterus.

3. Sepsis and its sequelæ.

4. Hæmatoma between the layers of the broad ligament.

Laceration of the cervix has been referred to: it begins as a rule at the internal and extends towards the external os uteri; it may be deep or superficial, and is recognized as a sulcus into which the finger can be passed from above downwards: rarely, laceration into the peritoneum may take place.

Rupture of the uterus is liable to occur when the uterine wall has been weakened by the changes which accompany the completion of the menopause, or has been infiltrated by carcinoma, or, more rarely, by vesicular mole.

Sepsis may occur from absorption through a laceration if asepsis has not been maintained: it may lead to an attack of pelvic cellulitis or even septicæmia.

If the uterus is fixed or not freely mobile, and the condition is complicated by any tubal or ovarian disease, great care must be exercised in manipulation.

Gradual dilatation by tents. There are three varieties of tents—sponge, laminaria, and tupelo.

Sponge tents should never be used, for they are extremely difficult to render sterile.

The commonest and the safest to use, because they can be most easily sterilized, are laminaria tents, made from sea-tangle (Laminaria digitata). These are cylindrical rods, which expand evenly, from imbibition of moisture. Tupelo tents are larger than laminaria and expand more rapidly.

To use tents that are not absolutely sterile is to court disaster, and in former times they were responsible for many fatalities from sepsis. The best way to keep laminaria and tupelo tents is in a solution of 1 in 1,000 corrosive sublimate in absolute alcohol. They may be kept in this for an indefinite period, and so are always ready for use.

Contra-indications. All septic states of the uterus and cervix, for the retention of pent-up discharges is very likely to lead to local or general infection. Tents should never be used then in such conditions as carcinoma of the body of the uterus, sloughing polypus, acute endometritis and cervicitis.

Method of introduction of a tent. The patient is placed in the lateral or lithotomy position and a vaginal douche given. A Sims’s speculum is passed and the cervix seized and drawn down with a volsella so as to straighten the cervical canal. The direction and length of the uterine cavity is ascertained by passing the sound. The most suitable size of tent is now selected, and, being held in a special form of tent introducer or suitable pair of forceps, is passed into the cervical canal, well past the internal os uteri. The end should project slightly into the vagina. The vagina should then be douched again and lightly packed with sterilized gauze. The patient must remain in bed.

The tent should be left in position for twelve to fifteen hours, when it will have exerted its full action. The action of tents is twofold: it causes (1) dilatation, and (2) softening of the cervix, the softening being accompanied by an abundant secretion of mucus from the cervical glands.

Method of removal. Tents are removed by traction on the silk thread attached to the vaginal end. The part of the cervical canal which exerts the greatest resistance to the dilating action is the internal os uteri, and after the tent has been removed a well-marked constriction is always to be seen at this point. If there is much resistance to removal by reason of the tent being gripped at the internal os, it should be taken in a pair of forceps and gently pulled and levered out.

OPERATIONS FOR HYPERTROPHY OF THE CERVIX

This is a congenital condition and there is no thickening of the mucous membrane and underlying tissues; hence the diameter of the cervix is not increased. The operation best adapted for the treatment of this condition is the wedge-shaped incision, recommended by Marckwald (Fig. 62).

Operation. The cervix is split bilaterally into an anterior and posterior portion by means of scissors, and out of each portion is excised a wedge-shaped piece of tissue, leaving a deep groove. The sutures are passed as in Fig. 62, and the raw surfaces are brought together.

Fig. 62. Marckwald’s Operation for Congenital Hypertrophy of the Cervix. The wedge-shaped portions have been excised and the sutures passed but not tied. a,p. Anterior and posterior lip of cervix before exsection. e.o.u. External os uteri. i.o.u. Internal os uteri. s,s'. Sutures.

Fig. 63. Hegar’s Operation for Supravaginal Elongation of Cervix. The cervix has been removed and four sutures passed but not tied. c.m.m. Cervical mucous membrane. s. One of the sutures. sp. Speculum. v.m.m. Vaginal mucous membrane.

Circular amputation, as carried out by Hegar, is more suitable for supravaginal elongation of the cervix, the result of prolapsus uteri.

The patient is anæsthetized and placed in the lithotomy position and the cervix is pulled down by a volsella and amputated transversely by a knife or scissors. A certain amount of retraction of the stump takes place, producing an inversion of the vaginal wall. The raw surface remaining must be covered by uniting the vaginal and cervical mucous membranes. Sutures are passed in the following manner: a short stout, straight needle, threaded with a loop of silk, is passed from the vaginal mucous membrane, across and beneath the raw surface of the stump, and emerges on the mucous membrane of the cervix (Fig. 63). From eight to ten of these sutures are passed at regular intervals and tied. The sutures are removed on the tenth day and the patient should be kept in bed for fourteen days.

TRACHELORRHAPHY.

Indications. This operation is performed for the repair of certain forms of laceration of the cervix. It was formerly practised in every case in which a laceration occurred: it is now only permissible in cases in which there is extroversion of the mucous membrane with certain symptoms, such as hæmorrhage or free leucorrhœal discharge accompanied by backache on exertion and general ill health. It was formerly considered that there was a direct relation between cervical laceration and cancer, but further inquiry has failed to corroborate this view.

The instruments required are: a Sims’s or Auvard’s speculum; long-handled, angular-bladed knives (right and left); Emmett’s scissors (right and left) (Fig. 64); toothed dissecting forceps; short stout needles with sharp triangular points, straight or very slightly curved.

Fig. 64. Emmett’s Scissors (left) for Trachelorrhaphy.

Operation. As it is usually found that subinvolution is present and kept up by the laceration, it is best to perform a preliminary curettage (see p. 154) before proceeding to the operation proper.

Fig. 65. Trachelorrhaphy. The patient is in the lithotomy position. The left half of the cervix has been denuded and two sutures, a, a' and b, b', passed. The right half is intact, but the method of passing the needle n is indicated.

ant. Anterior lip of cervix.
post. Posterior lip of cervix.
t,t. Tenacula.
o.u.i. Os uteri internum.
sp. Speculum.
w. Wire.

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position and an Auvard’s speculum is inserted. A piece of stout silver wire or a tenaculum is passed deeply through the anterior and posterior lips of the cervix; steady traction can be made through these and the uterus kept fixed while denudation and suturing are carried out. Should marked extroversion be present, with hypertrophy of the cervical glands, the curette should be freely applied to the diseased surface.

The uterine sound is passed to mark the situation of the internal os uteri, and an antero-posterior linear piece of lining membrane, about a quarter of an inch in breadth, must be allowed to remain untouched. This is necessary to prevent total occlusion of the cervical canal when the denuded flaps are sutured (Fig. 65).

Denudation. The right half of the anterior and posterior lips of the cervix (upper and lower from the operator’s point of view) are first pared by means of the angular knives and scissors, great care being taken to see that the deep angle of the reflexion is not overlooked. The other side is then treated in a similar manner. The tissues will be found extremely hard and resistant, especially if there be much cicatrization about the angle of the laceration.

The passage of the sutures (Fig. 65). The short stout, triangular-pointed needle is first doubly threaded with silk or stout chromicized catgut so that a loop of three to four inches in length is produced. The needle and the silk suture are passed as in Fig. 65, two on either side.

The triangular-pointed needle must be held in Schauta’s specially strong holder (Fig. 73), and should be made to pierce the cervix near the raw surface on one lip, and pushed through the tissues immediately below this to emerge on the strip of unpared cervix already mentioned. It is then carried across the sulcus and is made to emerge through the opposite lip of the cervix. A stout wire is now hooked into the loop and pulled through the needle track. When the two wire sutures are inserted on either side, the flaps are brought together and the wires twisted together.

Results. Primary union is the rule, and the wire sutures may be removed at the end of the tenth or twelfth day. The cervix has the appearance observed in the nullipara, and may lead to complications in any ensuing labour from difficulty of dilatation.

Dührssen modifies Emmett’s operation by a flap-splitting procedure which, however, does not appear to possess sufficient advantages to warrant its general introduction.

VAGINAL FIXATION (Hysteropexy)

This operation consists in the fixation of the retroverted fundus uteri in an anteverted position, by suturing it to the anterior vaginal cul-de-sac.

Indications. These are somewhat uncertain, and the field of utility of the operation is rapidly becoming more limited. Advocates of this procedure recommend it for backward displacement of the uterus with or without adhesions. It is considered specially applicable to cases in which slight retroversion is complicated by moderate prolapsus. The results which have so far obtained do not appear to be so good as those resulting from the use of a well-fitting pessary.

Operation. The technique recommended by Dührssen appears to be the most satisfactory, and is as follows: The patient is anæsthetized and placed in the dorsal position with the knees supported by a Clover’s crutch. After purification of the parts (see p. 126) the cervix is pulled down as far as possible by means of a volsella: a curettage is then carried out as a preliminary measure (see p. 154). If cervical hypertrophy is present, amputation by Marckwald’s method (see p. 160) should be performed, as an elongated cervix acts as a preventive to satisfactory anteversion of the uterus. A transverse or T-shaped incision is now made as in vaginal hysterectomy (see p. 169), and the cellular tissue pushed up by the index-finger until the peritoneum is reached. The peritoneum is now seized with a volsella and cut through, and the edges sutured to the lips of the vaginal wound. The uterine fundus is then anteverted by means of a sound: by pressing the handle of the instrument towards the perineum the fundus is brought into the wound. By means of a rectangular curved needle a stout silk suture is passed through the anterior wall of the fundus as high up as possible: the vaginal flaps are not included, as the suture is to be used for traction only. The uterus is now forcibly pulled down and two other sutures are introduced in the same manner higher up. Three sutures of catgut are passed through the uterine wall, including the vaginal and peritoneal flaps. The silk traction sutures are now withdrawn and the permanent ones tied. The vaginal wound is carefully sutured by means of fine silk.

Difficulties and dangers. The risks of the operation are peritonitis and wounding of one or both ureters or the bladder wall. Absolute rest for fourteen days is necessary and no local after-treatment is called for.

CHAPTER XVI

OPERATIONS FOR NEW GROWTHS OF THE UTERUS

Uterine growths include primary malignant disease and fibro-myomata; the former should be treated by exploration and subsequent vaginal hysterectomy (see p. 168), while the latter should be dealt with according to their relations and attachments to the uterine wall.

OPERATIONS FOR UTERINE FIBRO-MYOMATA

Fibro-myomata may present themselves to the operator in one of the following forms:—

1. As a fibroid polypus still intra-uterine or presenting through a naturally dilated and thinned-out cervix (submucous pedunculated).

2. As sessile growths presenting by their lower segments at the os uteri, which may be closed, or may be in varying degrees of dilatation (submucous sessile).

3. As tumours incorporated in the uterine wall (interstitial).

Fig. 66. Pedunculated Fibroid Polypi in various Stages of Extrusion. (From drawings made at time of operation.)

Operations for pedunculated tumours. If a fibroid polypus be still intra-uterine (Fig. 66) the proper treatment is to dilate the cervix (see p. 156), and, if the pedicle be sufficiently thin, to seize the growth with a pair of stout polypus forceps and twist it off by a slow rotary movement of the handles. Should the pedicle be thicker than the finger, the use of the wire écraseur is advisable. This is a scientific snare, with a loop of pianoforte wire and a handle or wheel by which it can gradually be tightened, causing the wire to slowly cut through the stalk of the growth (Fig. 67).

Fig. 67. Wire Écraseur.

The cervix is steadied with a volsella and the loop of the écraseur is shaped and bent to the size and position of the fibroid. The instrument is then passed into the uterine cavity and the noose pushed over the tumour up along the pedicle. The wire loop is then tightened up by means of the handle or wheel, and the wire cuts its way through and separates the growth from the uterine wall. It is somewhat dangerous to put any traction on the tumour before its separation, as is recommended by some writers, as the uterine wall itself may become somewhat inverted and the wire loop may cut through into the peritoneal cavity.

If the fibroid polypus has passed through the external os uteri, treatment is more simple. Slight traction may be made upon it by means of forceps, and the pedicle severed with scissors; no hæmorrhage takes place, owing to the retraction of the stump.

Operations for sessile tumours. In submucous sessile fibroids (Fig. 68) in which the lower segment of the uterus is somewhat thinned out and dilated, operative interference may be as follows: Preliminary dilatation of the cervix by bougies may be necessary. The capsule of the tumour is then incised with a sickle-shaped knife and the growth is enucleated by means of the finger or a blunt spoon. In some cases mere incision of the capsule is sufficient, and the uterus expels the growth later on.

Fig. 68. Submucous Fibro-myomata, capable of Treatment by Morcellement. (From drawings made at time of operation.)

Another method of treating these cases is by the operation of morcellement, which consists in removing the tumour piecemeal by means of specially made forceps.

The instrument used by the author consists of a strong pair of forceps somewhat like those used in lithotomy, with the two distal ends notched with sharp teeth like a volsella. A portion of the tumour is seized between these two blades, and partly cut and partly twisted off. With patience and care the whole tumour may be thus removed. In one case the author was enabled to remove two large growths, each filling a pint measure. This operation is specially suitable in women in whom an abdominal operation is to be avoided.

Operations for interstitial tumours. Interstitial fibroid tumours, if not above the size of a small fœtal head, should be treated by vaginal hysterectomy (vide infra); if large, by hysterectomy by the abdominal route (see p. 36).

Vaginal hysterectomy. By vaginal hysterectomy is meant removal of the whole uterus by the vagina, with or without the appendages. The advantages that the vaginal operation possesses over abdominal hysterectomy are, there is less disturbance of peritoneum and intestines, less shock, and no abdominal scar or risk of subsequent hernia. The operation is limited to uteri not exceeding in size the head of a full-time fœtus.

Indications. (i) Malignant disease of the uterus (fundus or cervix) in an early stage: chorio-epithelioma malignum.

(ii) Certain cases of fibro-myoma of the uterus.

(iii) Certain cases of inflammatory disease of the uterine appendages complicated by recurrent attacks of local perimetritis.

(iv) Other conditions, such as intractable uterine hæmorrhage, usually due to uterine myo-fibrosis, and, as a last resort, severe dysmenorrhœa.

It has also been advised for irreducible chronic inversion of the uterus, and for severe procidentia uteri. No case of the former has occurred in the author’s experience in which the operation was found necessary. In the latter condition the operation is not to be recommended, the almost certain result of the procedure being prolapse of the vaginal walls and the intestines (enterocele).

Vaginal hysterectomy for carcinoma. The only cases suitable for operation are early ones, in which the disease is still confined to the uterus itself, which should be freely mobile in all directions. No signs of infection of the surrounding cellular tissue and vaginal walls should be present. It cannot be too strongly insisted that all cases should be thoroughly examined under anæsthesia to settle this point before operation is decided upon. Rectal examination is most important to estimate the condition of the sacro-uterine ligaments, the cervix being pulled down so as to place them on the stretch.

Occasionally, cases of carcinoma of the cervix are seen, in which the cellular tissue immediately surrounding the cervix is apparently free from disease, but if search be made further outwards, a hard, fixed mass is found plastered, as it were, on to the side of the pelvis, indicating advanced disease of the lymphatic glands, or cellular tissue at the outer part of the broad ligaments. Such cases are hopeless for operation.

If the disease is in the sloughing stage, and there is foul discharge, Paquelin’s cautery should be applied to the diseased surface, followed by vaginal douches of formalin (ʒj to the pint), or some other efficient antiseptic, given three times a day for three days prior to operation. The operation consists of three main stages:—

First of all, the growth, if of the cervix, should receive careful preliminary attention, for it constitutes a continuous source of infection, not only by means of septic organisms, but also of cancer cells, which may become implanted in the wound and cause early recurrence. The cervix is drawn down with a volsella and all visible growth is burnt away with the Paquelin cautery, until apparently healthy tissue only is left. The cervix is then completely closed by the application of a volsella or three or four stout silk sutures, passing through both anterior and posterior lips. The ends of the sutures may be left long if preferred and serve as tractors.

After these preliminary measures against infection have been completed, the removal of the uterus is proceeded with. A posterior speculum, Auvard’s or Pozzi’s, is passed, and the cervix is drawn downwards and somewhat backwards by traction on the volsellum or the long ends of the silk sutures. A sound is passed into the bladder to define its lower limit. A transverse or T-shaped incision (Fig. 48) is now made through the vagina at the level of the cervico-vaginal junction in front. This constitutes the anterior incision, and the transverse portion should extend completely across the anterior aspect of the cervix, passing through the whole thickness of the vagina, but no further.

The knife is now laid aside, and the operator proceeds to push up the vagina and bladder from the anterior aspect of the cervix with the index-finger or a winged director, until the anterior peritoneal pouch is reached. This is at once recognized by its glistening white appearance and by the manner in which its opposing surfaces glide over one another.

This part of the operation must be conducted very cautiously for fear of injury to the bladder: the pulp of the finger only must be used in the separation. The frequent use of the bladder sound is very useful at this stage, as it is quite easy to wound this viscus laterally. Bleeding from the divided twigs of the vaginal vessels often obscures the field of operation and renders the separation of the bladder troublesome: it well repays the operator to stop all bleeding after making the vaginal incision.

The peritoneum is next picked up and opened with scissors. The anterior fold of peritoneum may sometimes be more easily reached after the bases of the broad ligaments have been ligatured and divided, thus allowing the uterus to be drawn down more readily, and making the peritoneum more accessible. An anterior retractor is then passed to keep the bladder out of the way.

A second incision similar to the first is now made across the posterior aspect of the cervix at the level of the cervico-vaginal junction, more or less cellular tissue is traversed, and the posterior peritoneal pouch is opened. By joining the ends of these two incisions the cervix is completely separated from the vagina.

Fig. 69. Galabin’s Broad-ligament Needle (right).

Fig. 70. Jessett’s Broad-ligament Needle.

The uterus is now suspended in the pelvis by the attachments of the broad ligaments only; the next step consists in ligaturing and dividing these. The cervix is drawn over towards the patient’s right side by an assistant, so as to expose the base of the left broad ligament. Additional space is gained by drawing aside the left wall of the vagina by means of a retractor. By passing the left index-finger behind the broad ligament the tube and ovary can be easily felt, and if necessary the bent finger can pull them down for inspection; the finger is then placed beside the cervix below and behind the base of the broad ligament. A Galabin’s or Jessett’s (Fig. 70) needle, carrying a stout silk suture, is passed through the ligament from before backwards, on to the tip of the finger (Fig. 71).

Fig. 71. Vaginal Hysterectomy. The patient is in the lithotomy position, the vaginal incisions have been made and the peritoneal cavity opened. The left broad ligament is exposed, and a Galabin’s needle threaded with silk is being passed from before backwards on to the index-finger of the operator’s left hand inserted into the peritoneal cavity. (Semi-diagrammatic, from a photograph.) a, a', a''. Retractors. c. Cervix. p. Supravaginal cervix denuded of its coverings. ut. Uterine artery. b.lig. Broad ligament. n. Galabin’s needle. v. Volsella.

The ligature should be passed about one-third of an inch up the broad ligament. It is then tied tightly and the ends left long and drawn aside. The segment of broad ligament included in the ligature is divided as near the uterus as is justifiable; in carcinoma of the cervix at least half an inch from the disease should be allowed. Care must be taken at this stage to avoid injury to the ureters; these lie about one inch distant from the cervix; consequently all ligatures must be passed as near the cervix as possible compatible with being clear of the disease.

A second ligature is now passed through the broad ligament above the first and then a third, and more if necessary. The second generally includes the uterine artery, which can always be recognized by its strong pulsation under the finger; the third ligature will control the Fallopian and ovarian arteries. After the arteries on the left side have been secured and divided, attention is directed to the right broad ligament. The cervix is drawn over to the left side, the fundus delivered, and the upper portion of the right broad ligament is dealt with in a similar manner, but from above downwards. If the ovaries and tubes are diseased, they can now be removed by piercing the pedicle and tying the stump in the usual way.

The uterus having been extirpated, the next step consists in dealing with the wound. First, all bleeding is stopped, and the wound is swabbed clean and dry. The ligatures on either side are tied in two bunches and the ends cut off just within the vagina (Fig. 72). The anterior and posterior flaps of peritoneum are united with a few catgut sutures passed by means of Schauta’s needle-holder (Fig. 73); the walls of the vaginal vault are treated in a similar fashion, leaving a circular orifice in the median line into which gauze can be inserted for the purpose of drainage.

Fig. 72. Vaginal Hysterectomy. Final stage. The uterus has been removed, and the peritoneal flaps are in process of suture. a, a', a'', a'''. Retractors. f, f'. Spencer Wells forceps attached to the anterior and posterior vaginal flaps. p. Circular orifice left open in the peritoneal flaps for insertion of gauze drain. sp. Stump of left broad ligament with bundle of ligatures (l). cl. Clitoris. l.m. Labium majus. u. Urethra.

Fig. 73. Schauta’s Needle-holder.

Some operators prefer to control the vessels in the broad ligaments by means of hæmostatic forceps instead of ligatures. Each broad ligament is clamped in three or more portions and the tissue between them and the uterus cut through. They must be allowed to remain in position for at least forty-eight hours, as recurrent hæmorrhage is possible if they are removed earlier. The only advantages of the forceps appear to be the rapidity with which the operation can be carried out, and the good drainage. The disadvantages are, that it is a somewhat unsurgical proceeding; there is often much pain from the nipping of the broad ligaments, and inconvenience from the presence of the handles between the labia; the intestines may be damaged; sloughing and risk of sepsis must be reckoned with.

After-treatment. The catheter should be used at first four times daily; the author recommends that the gauze should be removed at the end of twenty-four hours, but some operators retain it longer. The ligatures should be pulled upon a little daily after the seventh day, and they gradually cut their way through the tissues in their grasp. No vaginal douching should be administered until after the expiration of a week.

Vaginal hysterectomy for fibroids. This is not often called for. The operation is necessarily limited to fibroid uteri not exceeding in size a fœtal head. Uterine fibroids of such a size can usually be treated in other ways, either temporarily by curetting, or, if submucous, permanently by enucleation through the vagina. The operation is most suitable for uteri containing many small fibroids causing severe hæmorrhage which cannot be controlled by more palliative measures.

The vagina must be large enough to admit of delivery of the uterus through its lumen. Therefore, in virgins and nulliparæ, the abdominal operation is always to be preferred. In any case, if the vagina be too narrow, additional room may be gained by lateral vaginal section (see p. 148) or episiotomy.

The operation does not differ in technique from the removal of the uterus for carcinoma, already described. In some cases it may be preferable to bisect the uterus in the sagittal plane before removing it, after the cervico-vaginal attachments have been separated and the peritoneal pouches opened.

CHAPTER I

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS APPLICABLE TO
OPERATIONS UPON THE EYE

Operations upon the eye differ so widely from general surgical operations that it is necessary to say something of the preparations for them before passing on to their actual performance. Although not formidable in themselves, they require great accuracy and presence of mind; slight mistakes, such as too small an incision, may cost the patient his sight, which sometimes may be almost more important than life itself.

Most intra-ocular operations are performed without general anæsthesia; it is therefore important that the patient should be given confidence by talking to him during the operation, so that he may follow the instructions of the surgeon during its performance; loss of self-control on the part of the patient, movement of the head, screwing up of the eyes, &c., may lead to disastrous results, however well performed the operation itself may be.

GENERAL PRELIMINARIES TO AN OPERATION

The urine should always be examined, especially in cases of cataract, as not infrequently this disease is associated with diabetes, and it is often advisable to treat the general condition before operation.

The bowels should be opened by an aperient the night before the operation, as it is desirable to keep them confined for the first two days afterwards, so as to avoid straining. During the first week after a major operation, when the patient is confined to bed, they should be evacuated in the supine position.

The best time for operating, if possible, is the morning, as the patient has had a night’s rest and is less likely to lose self-control. Usually there is some pain after the cocaine has gone off, and the patient is better able to stand it during the daytime.

Anæsthetics. General anæsthesia should be induced in all patients with congested eyes, in small children, patients who are deaf, and those who show a want of self-control. Chloroform should be used for all intra-ocular operations, and should be given to the full surgical degree. It should be given on a towel or an inverted mask specially made for the purpose, a Junker’s inhaler being used during the time the actual operation is being performed. As the surgeon usually stands at the head of the patient, the anæsthetist should stand on the side away from the eye being operated on. The local use of cocaine in addition to general anæsthesia is indicated when operating on patients to whom it is advisable to give as little anæsthetic as possible.

Local anæsthesia is obtained by the use of a 4% solution of cocaine instilled four or five times before the operation at intervals of three minutes; a drop of the solution should also be instilled into the eye which is not being operated on, to prevent an accidental reflex stimulation of the conjunctiva and screwing up of the eyes. Adrenalin (1–1,000) may be used in conjunction with the cocaine; it is especially useful in squint operations, as it lessens the hæmorrhage. Eucaine and stovaine have been used, but are not nearly so satisfactory. Under ordinary circumstances the only pain felt during an intra-ocular operation is during removal of the iris; this is obviated to a great extent by instilling the cocaine at least 15 minutes before the operation is performed, so as to allow time for its diffusion into the anterior chamber. The patient should be warned when to expect the pain, so that he may not move; his self-control may be tested beforehand by pricking the nose with a pin.

Fig. 74. Window of the Operating Theatre, King’s College Hospital. The windows are fitted with outside blinds so that either can be used separately, or the surgeon may stand in the angle and operate with his back to the light. A recess beneath the window allows the patient’s face to be brought close to the light on dark days.

The theatre. The theatre should possess, as far as possible, all the modern improvements found in an up-to-date general surgical operating-room. The light should proceed from a single large window, which, if possible, should face the north. The window should consist of a single pane of glass or of two panes forming the angle of the theatre; it should begin about 5 feet from the floor and should extend to the ceiling (Fig. 74). The advantage of an angular window is that it allows the operator to stand with his back to the light in the angle, and so enables onlookers to see. No top light should be allowed, as it produces a corneal reflection which may prevent the operator from seeing the position of his knife in the anterior chamber. Beneath the window there should be a recess for the end of the operating table, so that the patient’s face can be brought close to the window if necessary (Fig. 74). This recess is formed by building the main wall of the theatre further out than the window, which has to be supported by a transverse girder.

Fig. 75. Bull’s-eye Electric Hand-lamp. For use when artificial illumination is required.

The window should be fitted with outside blinds so that the theatre can be easily darkened for the operations, such as capsulotomy, which require the use of artificial light. The best artificial light is a small enclosed electric hand-lamp fitted with a bull’s-eye, by means of which the operation field can be brilliantly illuminated while the surrounding area is left in comparative darkness (Fig. 75). Failing this, a single powerful lamp with a ground-glass globe, placed in front of the patient, will serve, the rays of light being brought to a focus on the eye by means of a large convex lens of about + 10 D.

For squint operations it is desirable to have a light fixed to the ceiling, directly over the head of the operating table, for testing the position of the eyes either by the reflection of the light from the surface of the cornea or by the Maddox rod test.

The operating table should be provided with a means of adjusting its height and the position of the head-piece, so that the patient’s head can be brought to about the level of the operator’s elbows when the latter is standing upright with his arms at his side.

After operation the patient should be warned to lie still and not to strain in any way; he should be carried to bed and should lie on his back if possible. If a patient cannot sleep on his back it is better that he should lie on the sound side than be without rest. A length of bandage should be fastened round the wrist of the hand on the same side as the eye which has been operated upon, and should be attached to the bed so as to prevent the hand being put up to the eye during sleep. After major operations, such as those for cataract and glaucoma, the patient is confined to bed for ten days, during the first four of which the head should not be raised from the pillow, the bowels being evacuated while the patient is in the supine position; but old patients with a tendency to bronchitis or hypostatic pneumonia must be propped up in bed and allowed to get up earlier: in these patients it is better to perform the operation in the summer if possible. In old people and patients with a tendency to melancholia the mental condition must be carefully watched, as frequently they cannot stand the confinement to bed and darkness.

LOCAL PREPARATION OF THE PATIENT

When operating upon the eye, a surgeon has to face the great difficulty that he is operating in an area which is not always aseptic, since it is practically impossible to render the conjunctival sac sterile. At the same time, the conjunctiva has been shown to be sterile in health in 25% of cases, pyogenic organisms (principally the staphylococcus albus) being found only in 15%; but, although these are usually not of a very virulent character, they are by far the most frequent cause of sepsis; ten cases of suppuration after operation which the author has examined were all due to this organism. After the methods of purification given below, this percentage is considerably reduced, so that, if due precautions are taken, the risk of sepsis is comparatively small. On the other hand, if conjunctivitis or lachrymal obstruction be present, the risks are enormously increased, especially in the latter condition owing to the frequent presence of the pneumococcus in the discharge, unless special precautions are taken. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that every case should be examined for lachrymal obstruction before operation. Care should be taken also to see that there is no purulent discharge from the nose or any septic sores about the face.

Sepsis after intra-ocular operations manifests itself in one of two forms: either by suppuration, which usually ends in a rapid and complete destruction of the eye (panophthalmitis), or more rarely in less virulent cases by recurrent attacks of hypopyon associated with acute irido-cyclitis; or by a plastic irido-cyclitis, which may lead to slow disorganization of the eye, with always the possibility of destruction of the other eye by sympathetic cyclitis (sympathetic ophthalmia). Although these conditions are comparatively rare, owing to the improvement in modern aseptic and antiseptic methods, every surgeon of experience will meet with these disastrous complications; indeed it has been suggested that immunization with staphylococcus vaccine should be carried out before major intra-ocular operations, since infection is generally due to this organism.

The methods of purifying the eye before operation. On the second night previous to the operation the eye should be bandaged and examined the following morning for conjunctival discharge. If any be present, an examination for organisms should be made, and the operation postponed until the conjunctival condition has improved. In the event of the case being extremely urgent, the conjunctiva should be swabbed over with nitrate of silver (10 gr. to the oz.) immediately before the operation; some surgeons prefer 1–2,000 perchloride of mercury. If lachrymal obstruction be present, the sac should be thoroughly washed out with boric lotion and protargol (10%) injected. The canaliculi may be temporarily occluded subsequently (see p. 294). If the lashes be very long they should be cut short. Epilation is performed by some Continental surgeons, but is not practised in this country. Various forms of specula are made to keep the lashes out of the field of operation; of these, a modification of Lang’s is perhaps the best (Fig. 76).

Fig. 76. Lang’s Eye Speculum. Designed to hold the lashes away from the field of operation.

On the morning of the operation the lids should be thoroughly cleansed with soap and water, followed by 1–2,000 solution of perchloride of mercury, special attention being paid to the lid margins and lashes. The conjunctival sac should be washed out with boric lotion and a pad of cyanide gauze applied over the closed lid.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AS TO MAKING AND HEALING OF WOUNDS IN THE GLOBE

It has already been pointed out that the great danger in intra-ocular operations is sepsis. It is the aim and object of every ophthalmic surgeon to make such wounds into the globe as will become rapidly shut off from the conjunctival sac. Delay in the healing tends to the formation of a fistulous opening into the globe. This aperture in the continuity of the globe may lead either directly on to the surface or beneath the conjunctiva, subsequent inflammation in which may spread to the interior of the eye.

Fig. 77. Undine for washing out the Conjunctival Sac.

Cocaine and other solutions used at the time and subsequently to operation should be sterilized. To ensure this the solutions should either be boiled immediately before use, or put up in drop bottles made in one piece with a long tapering neck, which is sealed off, and can be broken immediately before use. These bottles can be kept in an aseptic solution so as not to soil the hands of the surgeon.

The hands of the surgeon are purified. After the dressings have been removed, the patient’s head and the area surrounding the operation are covered with sterilized towels. In operations such as advancement, where sutures are used, it is desirable that the face should be covered with sterile muslin, with a hole cut in it for the eye, so as to prevent the sutures being contaminated from the skin of the face. The eyelids are again washed in 1–2,000 perchloride of mercury lotion, and the conjunctival sac is washed out with a strong stream of boric lotion or normal saline by means of a sterilized irrigator or an undine (Fig. 77) which has been kept in a bowl of lotion.

Instruments. Non-cutting instruments are boiled for 15 minutes in distilled water and placed in a tray of 1–80 carbolic lotion. Some surgeons prefer to place the instruments in the tray without lotion on sterile wet lint, as this excludes infection from the surgeon’s hands due to the lotion running off them on to the instrument. Failing distilled water, a small quantity of soda may be added to the water used for boiling, but this has the disadvantage that a deposit is liable to form on the instruments. This may be obviated to a certain extent by not placing them in the solution until it is boiling. Cutting instruments should be sterilized by dipping them in liquefied carbolic acid (crystals dissolved by heating with 10% of water) for half a minute immediately prior to use and then into absolute alcohol to remove the acid; they are then placed in the tray. The greatest care should be taken to see that cutting instruments and needles do not touch the side of the dish. The edges and points should always be carefully tested immediately before sterilization on a drum covered with fine kid specially made for the purpose. The points should pass through the drum by the weight of the instrument held flat on the open palm; the cutting edge should also be tested. Scissors are best tested by cutting wet cigarette paper, special care being taken to see that the edges are good near the points. Immediately after operation the instruments should be boiled, and dried whilst hot in order to prevent rust.

Fig. 78. Cataract Extraction. The drawing shows the line of incision. Note the conjunctival flap.

The direction of an incision into the globe should be as oblique as is consistent with the object of the operation, so as to allow larger healing surfaces to come into apposition. With this object in view it is desirable that a conjunctival flap should be formed to all wounds wherever possible (Fig. 78). Further, owing to the extreme vascularity of the conjunctiva, as has been shown elsewhere,3 wounds in it become firmly united after 48 hours. As a rule sutures are best avoided and are seldom required.

Position of the incisions. Corneal incisions are to be avoided, if possible, for the following reasons: firstly, the cornea being free from blood-vessels heals comparatively slowly; secondly, the wound is liable to become fistulous owing to the rapidity with which the epithelium grows down the side of the wound. On the other hand, incisions situated from 3 to 6 millimetres behind the limbus are liable to injure the ciliary body, and, in addition to irido-cyclitis being set up by the trauma, the iris or ciliary body will prolapse into the wound and prevent the union of its edges, with the result that sepsis may spread into the globe along the prolapsed portion of the uveal tract and set up an irido-cyclitis which may not only ruin the eye affected but may also cause a sympathetic irido-cyclitis in the other eye (Fig. 79).

Fig. 79. Sympathetic Ophthalmia. The exciting eye of a case following cataract extraction. The section shows the incarceration of the iris in the wound.

The site of election of an incision into the anterior part of the globe is therefore about 1 millimetre behind the limbus; that is to say, as near the cornea as is consistent with obtaining a good conjunctival flap to cover the wound in the globe (Fig. 78). When possible it is advisable to make all incisions in an upward direction for the following reasons: They are more easily performed; any deformities, such as an iridectomy, are hidden by the upper lid; more perfect rest is obtained, as the wound is not exposed in the palpebral aperture, the eye being turned upwards when the lids are closed.

Fig. 80. Cystoid Scar after Glaucoma Iridectomy.

The immediate danger of the passage of a knife into the anterior chamber of the eye is the wounding of the lens. To avoid this the point of the knife should be always kept superficial to the iris if a clear lens be present in the eye. After operation the chief danger is prolapse of the iris into the wound. This is best avoided at the time of operation by carefully replacing the iris with the spatula at the end of the operation, but unfortunately prolapse not infrequently occurs during the first few days owing to the reaccumulation of the aqueous in the anterior chamber and its sudden escape through the imperfectly healed wound as the result of straining or of some movement on the part of the patient; the iris may be carried into the wound with the escaping aqueous, and a fistulous opening or a scar may form subsequently (Fig. 80).

The less manipulation used consistent with the object of the operation the less likelihood is there of cyclitis following it. All instruments should be held lightly in the fingers, which should be as far as possible responsible for the fine manipulation required. The part of the hand not actually holding the instrument should be steadied on the face before the instrument is brought in contact with the eye.

When more than one operation has to be performed on the same eye it is desirable that all ciliary injection after the first operation should have disappeared before the second is undertaken.

Dressings. A pad of sterilized wool, with a few layers of cyanide gauze moistened with 1–6,000 perchloride of mercury lotion next the closed eyelid, held in position by a bandage, is all that is necessary.

Bandaging. The bandage is started on the forehead over the affected eye and is carried in a direction away from the eye to be covered. A complete turn is made to encircle the head and is fixed with a pin. The bandage is then brought up beneath the ear and over the eye and fixed with pins on the forehead (Fig. 81). When absolute rest is desired, it is necessary to bandage both eyes. After intra-ocular operations this is desirable for the first three days. When pressure is desired, a figure-of-eight bandage should be used (Fig. 82). A useful bandage (Moorfield’s bandage) for occlusion of both eyes is made from stockinette, which fits closely over the eyes and nose and is fastened with tapes.

Fig. 81. An Eye Bandage. The first turn, A, encircles the head and is fixed with a pin. This portion of the bandage can be put on before the operation and obviates movement of the head. The turn B is then brought up below the ear and fixed with pins.

Fig. 82. A Pressure Bandage. The first turn of a 1½-inch bandage encircles the head. It is then carried beneath the ear and over the head in a figure-of-eight. The final turn goes round the head and is fixed by a pin at the point of crossing of the previous turns.

The dressings should not be disturbed for at least 24 hours. The lids are then cleansed with 1–6,000 perchloride of mercury lotion, and the lower one is pulled down so as to allow the escape of tears and to see if any discharge be present. The upper lid should not be touched. If no discharge be present the eye is re-dressed. If discharge be present the conjunctival sac should be washed out carefully with boric lotion. Most wounds with conjunctival flaps are shut off in 48 hours, after which time it is advisable to wash out the conjunctival sac twice a day with boric lotion. Great care should be taken to see that no undue pressure is made on the globe. The patient should be warned not to screw up the eyes or strain whilst the dressing is being performed.

CHAPTER II

OPERATIONS UPON THE LENS

Surgical anatomy. The lens consists of fibres which are developed from cells originating in an inclusion of the fœtal epiblast. A normal lens is surrounded by a capsule, the anterior half of which is lined with a single layer of epithelial cells on its inner surface. In fœtal life the cells which line the posterior half of the capsule go to form the lens fibres, so that after birth the lens capsule is lined by cells only on its anterior surface. The lens capsule, which is deposited from the epithelial cells lining it, consists of a highly elastic membrane; small wounds in its continuity, therefore, gape widely. Throughout life the cells lining the capsule continue to become new lens fibres, but at the same time the bulk of the lens does not increase markedly. This is due to the fact that the lens fibres become more closely packed together and lose some of their watery constituents (sclerosis). The older central part of the lens is the first to undergo this process, with the result that a definite hard nucleus is found in the lenses of people about the age of thirty to thirty-five and upwards.

Fig. 83. A Lens Three Weeks after needling. The section shows the swelling and breaking up of the lens in the anterior chamber. The iris has become adherent to the needle puncture.

Chemically the lens fibres are composed of crystallin, which is closely allied to a serum globulin and is therefore soluble in salt solution. When the lens capsule has been opened, by operation or accident, the saline aqueous is admitted to the lens, which becomes opaque, swells up, and is gradually absorbed (Fig. 83). In those under the age of thirty, therefore, a simple incision into the capsule is all that is required to cause it to be absorbed. But, as has already been pointed out, the lens develops a hard nucleus after that age and will not then be absorbed satisfactorily by simply opening its capsule; to remove it, as is done in senile cataract, the hard nucleus must be extracted from the eye.

The lens is held in position by the suspensory ligament, which consists of interlacing fibres attached on the one hand to the ciliary process and on the other to the capsule at the lenticular margins (Fig. 84). Prolapse of the vitreous after cataract extraction is prevented by the integrity of this ligament and the posterior capsule of the lens, together with the hyaloid membrane of the vitreous. The tension on the fibres of the suspensory ligament, in addition to keeping the lens in its place, also exercises traction on the lens capsule. In dislocated lenses there is a gap in the suspensory ligament either as the result of injury or of congenital malformation; when such cases require operation there is some difficulty in producing a sufficient gap in the capsule to promote their absorption, owing to the mobility of the lens and the want of traction on the incision in the capsule.

Fig. 84. Anatomy of the Anterior Segment of the Eye.

Cil. P. Ciliary process.			S. Ch. Canal of Schlemm.
L. P. Lig. pectinatum, between the fibres of which are the spaces of Fontana.
Sup. C. Ly. S. Suprachoroidal lymph-space which extends backwards between the choroid and sclerotic.
M. Longitudinal portion		} of the ciliary muscle.
C. M. Circular portion
O. Circulus arteriosus.			S. Lig. Suspensory ligament of the lens.
E. Epithelium covering the ciliary process.
Pars Cil. Pars ciliariis retinæ. Pars plana of the ciliary body.
R. The retina.	} The junction of these with the pars plana is known as the ora serrata.
C. The choroid.
J. Iris.		S.M. Sphincter muscle.	Cry. Crypt.
M. M. Pigment epithelium.			S. Cornea. Substantia propria.
B. M. Bowman’s membrane.			D. M. Descemet’s membrane.
A. Cap. Anterior capsule of the lens.			C. P. Canal of Petit.

DISCISSION OR NEEDLING

Discission of the lens has for its object the tearing open of the anterior capsule, so that the lens substance may be broken up and absorbed.

Indications. This operation will be required:

(i) For cataract in patients under the age of about thirty. The forms of cataract for which these operations are usually performed are: (i) complete congenital cataract, in which the whole lens is opaque and consists of little more than a shrunken capsule which may have to be extracted if discission is unsuccessful; (ii) lamellar cataract, of sufficient density to interfere seriously with vision; (iii) posterior polar cataract in rare instances; (iv) traumatic cataract, to complete the absorption of the lens by breaking up its fibres.

Before operating on any form of cataract the following facts must be ascertained as far as possible:—

(a) Vision. It must be remembered that in children a defective eye retaining the power of accommodation is often more useful than an eye which sees better but has to wear different glasses for different distances. Vision must be reduced to less than 6/18 in both eyes after correction with glasses before the operation should be undertaken. In rare cases, in children, and in traumatic cataract where the cataract is very dense and confined to one eye, it may be removed partly to improve the personal appearance and partly to enable the patient to see large objects.

An eye without a lens (aphakia) will not work with an eye with a lens even if the former be corrected with glasses.

If the patient be unable to see letters, he should have a ready and quick perception of light, no cataract, however dense, being sufficient to prevent this.

(b) A patient should have a good projection of light; that is to say, he should be able to locate the light when thrown into the eye with a mirror whatever direction it comes from. Children generally turn the head towards the light, provided that they can see it and that the eye is not defective from other causes.

(c) Note whether the pupils are equal and active. In children most useful information can often be obtained as to the condition of the fundus by means of the pupil, which often will not react when the patient is unable to appreciate light.

(d) The condition of the fundus of the other eye, if observable, should be taken into account, as many diseases of the fundus, such as choroiditis and myopia, are bilateral, and would influence the prognosis considerably.

(e) The lachrymal sac and conjunctiva should be free from all signs of inflammation (see p. 181).

(ii) For the removal of a lens for high myopia. In selected cases operation gives very satisfactory results with great improvement of vision; indeed full normal distance vision has been obtained without glasses. The operation, however, is only justifiable under certain circumstances, the chief of which are:—

In emmetropia, if the lens be removed, a glass of + 11 D. has to be placed before the eye for distance vision and + 14 D. for near vision. It is impossible to predict the exact amount of correction of myopia which will be produced by the removal of the lens, owing to the surgeon’s inability to estimate the refractive power of the lens associated with the distortion of the posterior pole of the globe. Usually a patient with about 22 D. of myopia is rendered emmetropic by the operation.

There are two main objections which have been raised to the operation: first, that there is a slight risk of septic infection, sympathetic ophthalmia even having been known to occur; secondly, that retinal detachment seems rather more common after operation than in ordinary myopia of the same degree. As a rule it is only advisable to perform the operation on one eye, the patient using the other for reading purposes, but under certain circumstances, as when the operation has been successful for a considerable period of time, it would be justifiable to perform it on the other eye. The operation should never be performed on patients having only one eye.

Instruments. Speculum (Fig. 85), fixation forceps (Fig. 86), discission needle.

Fig. 85. Eye Speculum.

Fig. 86. Fixation Forceps.

Operation. First step. The operation is best performed by artificial light. The pupil having been dilated with atropine and the eye anæsthetized with cocaine (a general anæsthetic being necessary, however, for young children), the speculum is inserted by first drawing up the upper lid, making the patient look down, and inserting the top blade, and then drawing down the lower lid, making the patient look up, and inserting the lower blade. The speculum is opened to its full width without undue strain on the canthus and is kept in position by tightening the screw. The eye is steadied by fixation forceps held in the left hand, which grasp the conjunctiva as close to the cornea as possible directly opposite to the spot at which the puncture is to be made; the puncture is made directly behind the limbus and the needle is passed into the anterior chamber.

Second step. Using the shaft of the needle lying in the cornea as a fulcrum on which to rotate the needle, an incision is made in the anterior capsule of the lens, and the lens fibres are broken up by a stirring movement. The needle is then rapidly withdrawn in the same plane in which it was inserted so as to avoid making a crucial incision in the cornea with the spear-like end and thereby losing the aqueous. The best way to make sure of this is to mark one side of the handle so that it may be inserted and withdrawn in the same position. A pad and bandage are then applied.

After-treatment. The pupil should be kept dilated subsequently by the use of atropine twice a day until the lens has become absorbed. The bandage may be removed about the fourth day and dark glasses worn.

The effect of the operation on the lens varies considerably. It may swell up so rapidly that the tension of the eye becomes increased, in which case an evacuation may have to be performed; in other cases, especially in the cases of a patient with high myopia, several needlings may be required before absorption is complete.

CAPSULOTOMY

Capsulotomy is the division of the opaque capsular membrane left after a cataract has been removed.

Fig. 87. Secondary Cataract. Opaque capsule after cataract extraction.

Indications. After a cataract has been removed, either by discission or extraction, an opaque membrane is usually left. This is due to the proliferation of the cells in the anterior capsule of the lens while attempting to lay down new lens fibres. Although the posterior capsule is clear and free from cells, those from the anterior capsule may spread to it and so render it opaque. A fibrinous exudate may also organize and help to thicken the membrane (Fig. 87). For these reasons and also because the soft matter may not have absorbed entirely, it is not advisable to operate too soon after a cataract has been removed. There should be at least six weeks’ interval after an extraction has been performed. A few surgeons operate earlier than this, the idea being that the membrane is then softer and more easily divided.

Although the operation of discission for after-cataract (capsulotomy) is simple it is not to be undertaken lightly. The patient’s vision should be less than 6/18. In former days the operation was looked upon as attended with as much risk as the extraction, owing to the frequency with which it was followed by inflammation. The reasons for this seem to have been want of proper antiseptic precautions, the passage of the needle through the non-vascular corneal tissue instead of through the conjunctiva, and also the use of a badly made needle, often resulting in prolapse of the vitreous into the wound. A proper discission needle should have sufficient width in its spear-like point to cut a hole large enough to admit the shaft freely; hence needles which have been sharpened several times should be discarded. It need hardly be said that there should be no signs of cyclitis (keratitis punctata) present when the operation is undertaken.

Instruments. These are the same as for discission, with the addition of a needle with a long cutting edge.

Fig. 88. Capsulotomy. The method of incising the capsule. The fulcrum of movement of the needle is where the shaft lies in the sclerotic.

Operation. Capsulotomy is best performed by artificial light under cocaine. The cutting needle is inserted into the anterior chamber as in the previous operation. The point is then thrust through the membrane below (but it should not penetrate deeply, otherwise the vitreous will be torn) and an incision is made in an upward direction. This incision usually gapes sufficiently to give a clear pupil (Fig. 88). Those surgeons who operate early try to cut out a triangular portion of the membrane. When a dense band is present which gives before the needle and cannot be divided, a second or ordinary discission needle should be passed into the anterior chamber from the limbus opposite to the cutting needle. The discission needle is made to pass behind the band whilst the cutting needle lies in front of it. By a rotary movement of the discission needle around the cutting needle the band is carried against the edge of the latter and so divided. The needles are then withdrawn (Fig. 89).

Fig. 89. Capsulotomy. The method of dividing a dense band. This is done with two needles.

Results. These are good as a rule, but the operation may have to be performed again owing to an insufficient or non-central opening being obtained in the membrane, or to a fresh membrane forming; this is liable to take place if any irido-cyclitis follow the operation.

After-treatment. This should be carried out as described for needling.

EVACUATION

Indications. (i) In cases of increased tension associated with soft lens substance in the anterior chamber.

(ii) To accelerate the absorption of soft lens matter from the anterior chamber. As a rule it is only undertaken for the former condition.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, bent broad needle, curette.

Operation. Under cocaine.

First step. An incision is made behind the limbus, usually in an upper segment of the cornea, by means of a bent broad needle. The point of the instrument is passed into the anterior chamber immediately behind the limbus with the handle at right angles to the cornea; directly the anterior chamber has been entered the handle is depressed so that the point of the instrument shall turn forwards and avoid injuring the iris. The blade is passed on into the anterior chamber until the point reaches about the centre of the pupil. It is then either withdrawn directly, or, if a larger incision be desired, lateral pressure is made so that in withdrawing the blade the wound is enlarged.

Second step. Evacuation. With the rush of aqueous which follows the incision some soft matter is usually evacuated; then a curette may be introduced, if necessary, and the lens fragments removed by gentle manipulation. Occasionally the iris may prolapse into the wound; if this happens it should be replaced, but if it occur more than once the prolapsed portion should be removed. Suction apparatus has been used for removing the soft lens matter, but it is not to be recommended in most cases, owing to the difficulty of sterilization and the trauma which it may cause. After-treatment as for needling should be carried out.

EVULSION OF THE CAPSULE

Indications. (i) In congenital cataract when the lens consists of little more than a dense capsular mass.

(ii) In dense capsular membranes following removal of a lens by discission in which a cutting needle cannot make a hole.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, keratome, capsule forceps, discission needle.

Operation. A general anæsthetic is usually desirable.

First step. The pupil is previously dilated with atropine. In the case of congenital cataract a discission needle is first passed into the mass to estimate its consistency. If it consist of little more than capsule an incision is made at the limbus with the keratome as described for evacuation.

Second step. The blades of the capsule forceps are then inserted closed, opened, and the opaque capsule grasped and withdrawn from the eye. The speculum is then removed and a pad and bandage applied. The pupil should be kept dilated with atropine subsequently, as a certain amount of irido-cyclitis following the operation is not infrequent. Occasionally the iris may become entangled in the wound, and it should then be removed.

EXTRACTION OF THE LENS

Indications. (i) For all forms of cataract in patients over thirty years of age.

(ii) For cases of high myopia over the same age.

(iii) For lenses containing foreign bodies.

(iv) For displacement of the lens causing irritation.

Probably no operation in surgery has so many modifications, many of which possess advantages and disadvantages which counterbalance each other so nearly that the individual surgeon must decide for himself which is the most satisfactory to carry out. The opinion of many surgeons, including the author, is that the ideal operation is one which can obtain sight for the patient at one sitting. The operation described below is carried out with this object in view, the various modifications and the indications for their use being subsequently discussed.

Instruments. Speculum, two pairs of fixation forceps, a Graefe’s knife, iris forceps (Fig. 90), iris scissors (Fig. 91), capsule forceps, cystotome, curette or spoon, iris spatula, vectis (Fig. 92), or lens spoon (Fig. 93).

Fig. 90. Iris Forceps. Care should be taken to see that the teeth dovetail properly.

Fig. 91. Iris Scissors. Their cutting power should be tested on wet cigarette paper before use.

Fig. 92. A Vectis. It should be made of stiff steel.

Fig. 93. Pagenstecher’s Spoon. It is an advantage to bend the shaft near the spoon to a right angle.

Operation. The operation is performed under cocaine and is divided into five steps:—

1. Incision.

2. Iridectomy.

3. Opening the lens capsule.

4. Delivery of the lens.

5. Toilet of the wound.

Fig. 94. Lens Extraction. Showing the position of the hands when making a section upwards with a Graefe’s knife.

First step. The incision. The surgeon, standing behind the patient’s head and holding the knife with the edge directed upwards, in the right hand for the right eye and in the left hand for the left, fixes the eye with a pair of forceps held in the other hand, by grasping the conjunctiva below and to the inner side as close to the limbus as possible (Fig. 94). Most continental surgeons stand in front of the patient and cut upwards. The point of the knife is then passed on the flat into the anterior chamber from the outer side, 1.5 millimetres behind the corneo-sclerotic junction.

Fig. 95. The Knife entering the Anterior Chamber in Cataract Extraction. The point of the knife is directed downwards and inwards.

Fig. 96. Making the Counter-puncture in Cataract Extraction. The counter-puncture is shown completed.

It is first directed downwards and inwards until the chamber is penetrated (Fig. 95). The knife-point is then directed horizontally and passed across the anterior chamber in a line parallel with an imaginary tangential line across the top of the cornea. The counter-puncture is then made, the knife emerging 1 millimetre behind the corneo-sclerotic junction (Fig. 96). In making the counter-puncture the beginner is apt to go too far back in the sclerotic owing to the angle of the chamber being placed behind the limbus; he should therefore aim for a point about 1 millimetre inwards from the limbus. The knife is next made to cut upwards by a sawing movement so that a flap is formed of corneal tissue about 3 millimetres in breadth (a breadth and a half of a new Graefe’s knife), the upper margin being at the corneo-sclerotic junction. When the corneal flap has been made, the knife should lie beneath the conjunctiva, from which a flap about 3 or 4 millimetres in length should be formed. The knife-edge is then turned forward and made to cut its way out. In making the section, care must be taken not to prick the patient’s nose or eyelid with the point of the knife, as it may cause him to move his head with disastrous results. This is more likely to happen with patients who have sunken eyes.

Fig. 97. Incision and Iridectomy in Cataract Extraction.

Second step. Iridectomy. The patient is made to look downwards. A pair of iris forceps are inserted, closed, into the anterior chamber, opened, and the iris grasped near its root, and withdrawn. The piece of iris is then removed with the iris scissors, dividing it parallel with the incision as close to the eye as possible (Fig. 97). If the conjunctival flap hinders the insertion of the iris forceps into the anterior chamber, it may be turned forward over the cornea with the point of the closed forceps.

Fig. 98. Opening the Capsule with Forceps in Cataract Extraction. The forceps are inserted closed, brought in contact with the lens, opened, and the capsule grasped between the blades and withdrawn by a gentle side-to-side movement.

Third step. The capsule of the lens is opened. This is done in order to allow the lens nucleus and soft matter to escape. Since the anterior capsule becomes opaque after the removal of the lens, owing to the multiplication of the cells in their attempt to lay down new lens fibres, it is desirable to remove a portion of the anterior capsule from the pupillary area. This may be performed (a) by means of capsule forceps which are inserted closed, and when in position over the lens are opened as widely as possible without entangling the iris, then pressed down on to the anterior capsule of the lens and closed; in this manner the portion of the capsule thus included is removed by a slight lateral movement (Fig. 98); (b) by means of a cystotome, the lens capsule being opened by a triangular or T-shaped incision over the pupillary area; (c) by the point of the knife as it passes across the anterior chamber; (d) by a discission needle before the section is made. When the capsule of the lens has been opened properly the lens nucleus is usually seen to come forward. The advantage of the capsule forceps over the other methods is that they remove a larger portion of the capsule and leave no tags which may become incarcerated in the wound. On the other hand they are somewhat more difficult to use; more pressure on the lens is required, and therefore dislocation of the lens in its capsule may result. It is, therefore, not advisable to use them in cases in which a fluid vitreous is suspected. If the teeth of the forceps are not well made they will not grasp the capsule; it is therefore always advisable to have the cystotome in readiness. The cystotome also should be used when the anterior chamber becomes filled with blood so that the margin of the iris cannot be seen and there is a risk of the iris being grasped by the forceps.

The method of opening the capsule with the point of the knife or needle is useful in cases of extraction without iridectomy; the pupil should be dilated before the operation.

Fourth step. Delivery of the lens is performed by a gentle pressure, combined with massage, on the extreme lower margin of the cornea with a curette or spoon, until the upper margin of the lens presents in the wound, when the pressure is gradually made upwards over the cornea until the lens is delivered. Delivery of the lens may be prevented by—

(a) Imperfect opening of the capsule, which is usually the result of using a blunt cystotome; if capsule forceps are used this difficulty hardly ever arises.

(b) Too small an incision. The margin of the nucleus may present and not be able to pass the wound. The wound must then be enlarged with the iris scissors and the lens delivered in the ordinary way. Only by experience can the amount of pressure required for the delivery of the lens be gauged.

(c) A sticky consistency of the cortex is not infrequently found in cases of immature cataract. When the lens presents and cannot be delivered readily it may be helped out by means of the cystotome plunged into its substance, pressure being used on the cornea at the same time.

Fig. 99. Cataract Extraction. Replacing the iris, and any tags of capsule which may be in the wound, with an iris spatula.

If from these or any other causes the suspensory ligament rupture and the vitreous present in the wound, the lens should be removed with the vectis. The vectis, which should be made of stiff steel, is passed vertically into the incision and behind the lens nucleus by depressing the handle; with a steady gentle pressure forwards it is then withdrawn together with the nucleus. The forward pressure should be such as to prevent the instrument slipping on the nucleus, for if it does so the accident is nearly always followed by a rush of vitreous. A Pagenstecher’s spoon may be used instead of the vectis, and is to be preferred in cases where a small nucleus is suspected, since the latter may slip through the loop of the vectis and fail to be delivered.

Fifth step. Toilet of the wound. After the nucleus has been extracted, all the soft matter should be removed as far as possible by gentle expression with the spoon. The angles of the coloboma in the iris should be replaced by stroking it inwards on its anterior surface with the iris spatula, paying particular attention to the angles of the wound (Fig. 99). The spatula should also be passed throughout the extent of the wound so as to free it from any capsule which may have prolapsed into it. The conjunctival flap is then placed in position by stroking it upwards with the iris spatula.

After-treatment. Atropine is instilled either at the time of operation or at the first dressing, and continued until all signs of redness of the eye have disappeared. The patient should remain in bed for at least ten days, both eyes being bandaged during the first four days. The eye that has been operated on should be covered for at least two weeks; subsequently a shade or dark glasses should be worn.

Modifications. The operation may be modified in various ways.

The incision. The position of the incision has undergone many modifications. The one described above is now in general use.

The size of the incision should be increased when (a) a large nucleus is expected, as in old people; (b) an immature cataract is to be extracted; or (c) a fluid vitreous is suspected, so that the lens may be delivered with as little pressure as possible.

The iridectomy may be omitted. Extraction without iridectomy is undoubtedly the ideal operation; it leaves the pupil unbroken and the eye looking normal to external appearance. Further, the pupil reacts more strongly to light than if an iridectomy has been performed. The presence of the iris further prevents the prolapse of any capsule into the wound. At the same time it is attended with considerable risk of prolapse, which, as has been pointed out, is a very great danger to the eye. With proper care this probably only occurs in about 5% of the patients operated upon, but is so serious that the opinion of most surgeons is in favour of the combined method (iridectomy and extraction); but at the same time it is the practice of many surgeons to omit the iridectomy under the following circumstances: first, if the patient be young and the deformity will interfere with his getting employment; secondly, if extraction of the lens in its capsule be performed the unbroken circle of the iris will help to prevent the prolapse of the vitreous which is otherwise so liable to take place.

Eserine (gr. ii ad ℥i) should be used to prevent prolapse of the iris after the extraction has been performed, and should be continued once a day until a good anterior chamber is present, which is usually in about twelve to twenty-four hours, when atropine should be substituted. If the iris betray any liability to prolapse after the operation, as shown by the drawing upwards of the pupil, an iridectomy should be performed before the patient leaves the table. In any case the eye should be examined on the evening of the operation, and, if prolapse has occurred, that portion of the iris should be removed. If a prolapse of the iris occurs and is not discovered until the wound has healed, the conjunctiva should be dissected off the surface in the form of a flap and the iris tissue drawn out of the wound and removed, the angles caught in the scar being freed if possible. The opening in the globe is subsequently closed by replacing the conjunctival flap in position, or, if it has not been possible to preserve the conjunctiva over the cicatrix, by raising a flap from the ocular conjunctiva in the neighbourhood and stitching it down over the opening in the globe. Not infrequently this operation is followed by an attack of acute iritis, which usually subsides under treatment.

Preliminary iridectomy. The iridectomy may be performed at a previous operation. It has the advantages that the surgeon learns how the patient will behave under operation, and how the eye will react to such an operation. There is an absence of bleeding at the second operation, which makes it easier, and there is less liability for the iris to become adherent to the capsule. The disadvantages, which seem to outweigh the advantages, are that there is a double chance of sepsis, and that the patient has to submit to two operations when one is sufficient. It is only performed by the author in cases in which there is a tendency to increased tension in the eye due to swelling of the lens in the early stages of the cataract. When a preliminary iridectomy is performed a keratome may be substituted for the Graefe’s knife in making the incision for the iridectomy, a much smaller one being necessary.

Fig. 100. McKeown’s Irrigation Apparatus for washing out the Anterior Chamber. The second and third terminals are the most useful.

Delivery of the lens by irrigation. McKeown removes the soft lens matter by a process of irrigation into the anterior chamber, a practice not yet much adopted, but of considerable service in removing the soft matter after the extraction of the nucleus, especially in immature cataract. It is also probable that the thorough removal of the soft lens matter by this method reduces the number of cases of cyclitis following the operation, since the soft matter forms a suitable medium for the growth of organism. The apparatus used is shown in Fig. 100, nozzle No. 2 being the most useful; it is inserted into one angle of the wound and a stream of sterilized normal saline solution at 39°C. (in the flask) is allowed to flow into the anterior chamber; this stream is obtained by raising the flask until sufficient pressure is obtained. An undine may be substituted for the flask. Care should be taken that there is a free return of fluid from the anterior chamber; irrigation should be continued until as much as possible of the soft matter has been removed.

Extraction of the lens in its capsule. This operation is frequently performed in India, where patients will often not return for needling of secondary cataract (capsulotomy). Although the method undoubtedly yields good results, the percentage of eyes damaged by loss of the vitreous must be higher than when the posterior capsule of the lens is left intact. The operation may be performed with or without an iridectomy, the lens being removed by pressure on the cornea with a large strabismus hook. If the vitreous should present, the lens should be removed with the vectis.

Extraction of the lens in its capsule is also performed when the lens is dislocated and causing irritation. If the lens be in the anterior chamber immediate extraction is called for, as glaucoma is a usual complication. Eserine is first instilled in order to contract the pupil and prevent the lens passing back into the posterior chamber; an incision is then made as for a cataract extraction and the lens removed by means of the vectis. Complete dislocation of the lens into the vitreous rarely requires operation, as the patient is able to see. Partial dislocation (luxation) occasionally calls for extraction, the vectis usually being employed for delivering the lens, but before undertaking the operation an attempt should be made to get the lens into the anterior chamber by dilating the pupil and making the patient lie face downwards; if this is successful eserine should be instilled to contract the pupil behind the lens and so retain it in the anterior chamber, from whence it can more easily be extracted. Some surgeons prefer to fix the lens with a needle passed through the sclerotic behind the ciliary body before making the incision.

Subconjunctival extraction. In order to diminish the risks of sepsis, more especially in cases in which the conjunctiva is affected with trachoma, some continental surgeons deliver the lens into a pocket beneath the conjunctiva, whence it is subsequently removed. The operation has the additional advantage of a better blood-supply to the corneal flap, which is also held in better position after the operation.

Fig. 101. Subconjunctival Extraction. The section in the sclerotic being completed with a Graefe’s knife, the figure shows the method of undermining the conjunctiva to form a pocket into which the lens is delivered and from which it is subsequently removed.

Operation. A section upwards is made with a Graefe’s knife as in the ordinary method of extraction previously described, the lens capsule being opened with the point of the knife as it is passed across the anterior chamber. When the section through the sclerotic has been completed and the knife lies entirely beneath the conjunctiva it is withdrawn.

The wound in the conjunctiva on the outer side is then enlarged upwards with scissors, and an iris spatula is passed beneath the conjunctiva from the small wound on the inner side and the point made to appear in the wound on the outer side; by this means the conjunctiva is raised on the spatula, and by means of sharp-pointed scissors a pocket is made in an upward direction by undermining the conjunctiva (Fig. 101). Delivery of the lens is then performed into this pocket, from which it is subsequently removed, the conjunctival wound on the outer side being closed with a stitch. The advantage of this form of subconjunctival extraction over other forms which have been devised is that if difficulty is met with in delivering the lens, &c., the operation can be readily converted into an ordinary extraction by completing the division of the conjunctival flap.

Complications. These may be immediate or remote.

Immediate. 1. If the knife-point become entangled in the iris as it is passed across the anterior chamber it should be slightly withdrawn, if this can be done without loss of aqueous, the iris being thereby disengaged.4

2. Loss of the aqueous before the section is complete may result in the entanglement of the iris as before described, or the iris, owing to the presence of the aqueous in the posterior chamber, may bulge forward in front of the knife-blade. The latter complication is more likely to occur if the section be made too rapidly. The iris may sometimes be disengaged by depressing the handle of the knife towards the patient’s chin and raising the blade towards the cornea so as to allow the aqueous in the posterior chamber to escape. If this cannot be accomplished, the section should be completed and the iris, which may be divided by the knife, removed subsequently when doing the iridectomy.

3. Avulsion of the iris due to movement of the patient’s head. This is more liable to take place if the eye has not been properly cocainized some time before the operation. The grasping of the iris by the forceps is always felt by the patient to a certain extent, and he should be warned not to move. Avulsion is usually not complete and only results in a larger iridectomy than was intended.

4. Dislocation of the lens. (a) When opening the capsule, either from too great pressure of the capsule forceps, or from the patient moving his head. The lens must then be delivered by the vectis. (b) If, in delivering the nucleus, the upper edge is not made to present by pressure on the lower part of the cornea, the nucleus, especially if it be small, is liable to be dislocated upwards beyond the incision. It must then be removed with the vectis. In cases where a small nucleus is suspected, pressure should be made on the sclerotic above the incision with a curette, as well as on the lower part of the cornea, so as to make the nucleus present in the wound.

The lens may be dislocated backwards into the vitreous; if this should happen and the lens cannot be delivered, the flap must be replaced in position and the eye bandaged. Unfortunately this complication is usually followed by irido-cyclitis and loss of the eye.

5. Loss of the vitreous. There are two chief phenomena which may indicate that loss of vitreous is about to take place after the extraction of the lens.

(a) The wound gapes unnaturally after the expulsion of the lens, and the clear vitreous may be seen presenting in the wound in the still unruptured hyaloid membrane.

(b) There may be an apparent deepening of the anterior chamber owing to the fluid vitreous making its way forward through the ruptured hyaloid into that cavity.

If the vitreous presents in the wound before the lens has been removed, the latter should be delivered as rapidly as possible by the vectis, as has previously been described.

If the vitreous be lost or one of the phenomena previously mentioned occurs after the delivery of the lens, the speculum should be removed from the eye and the conjunctival flap replaced in position as quickly as possible. The eyelid is then carefully raised from the surface of the eyeball by means of the lashes held in the finger and thumb and carried downwards over the globe until it is in the closed position, and a bandage is then applied.

As little manipulation as possible should be carried out when once the vitreous has shown itself about to present, and unless the iris be obviously in the wound no attempt should be made to replace it.

Loss of vitreous may be the result of subchoroidal hæmorrhage, which may only make itself manifest after the patient has been put back to bed.

Loss of vitreous is frequently accompanied by hæmorrhage into the vitreous, as is seen subsequently by the floating opacities therein. As a rule these clear, and useful vision is obtained.

Detachment of the retina may follow loss of vitreous even months after operation. This complication seems more liable to occur if the vitreous which is lost in the first instance be normal and not of the fluid type.

6. Intra-ocular hæmorrhage (see Glaucoma Iridectomy, p. 224).

Remote. 1. Panophthalmitis is a result of infection of the wound. It usually makes its appearance about the third day and must be treated by evisceration. Occasionally the purulent material is limited to the line of the incision or even to the anterior chamber; in the latter instance the wound should be opened up and the anterior chamber washed out with peroxide of hydrogen solution (10 vols. %). Microscopic examination of the pus should be made and a vaccine prepared and administered; in two cases so treated by the author a good recovery resulted.

2. Escape of the aqueous beneath the conjunctiva usually occurs about the third day, owing to the conjunctival wound having healed without the opening into the globe being properly shut off. This is accompanied by considerable pain, with chemosis and some œdema of the upper lid. It is usually distinguishable from acute iritis by the pupil being evenly dilated and discoloration of the iris being absent. The condition usually subsides in three or four days, when the wound in the globe has become shut off.

3. Acute iritis not infrequently occurs after extraction. It usually comes on about the third day and may be accompanied by hypopyon. It may settle down under atropine, leeching, and dry heat, but may also pass on into the more chronic form; adhesion of the iris to the capsule, however, frequently results. More rarely the disease may not make its appearance till two or three weeks after the operation (latent sepsis), the patient suffering from recurring attacks of hypopyon. In these cases in which the hypopyon persists, washing out the anterior chamber with peroxide of hydrogen (10 vols. %) and the administration of a vaccine is of service.

4. Chronic irido-cyclitis is usually primary, but may occasionally follow an acute attack of iritis. Of all the disastrous complications, this is by far the worst. It may not only destroy the sight of the eye on which the operation has been performed, but may set up sympathetic ophthalmia in the other eye. The eye does not settle down well after the operation, there being usually some prolapse of the iris or capsule into the wound. It remains injected or flushes up on exposure to light. After a time (usually about the end of the third week) keratitis punctata makes its appearance, and the tension of the eye may become decreased or occasionally increased. The disease may resolve or go on to shrinking of the globe. Energetic treatment with atropine and hot fomentations locally, with the internal administration of iron, is indicated. The administration of staphylococcus vaccine causes only temporary improvement in most instances. In six cases so treated by the author the improvement was only temporary, in spite of the fact that there was a definite local reaction to the vaccine and in two cases the staphylococcus albus was isolated from the fluid in the anterior chamber. If at the end of two months the eye be red and well-marked keratitis punctata be present, and if the pupil be beginning to be drawn up and the eye shows no tendency to improve, enucleation should be seriously considered; this is especially advisable if the projection of light has become defective, showing that the retina is probably detached. If any signs of sympathetic irritation, such as mistiness of vision, ciliary flush, or photophobia, appear in the eye which has not been operated on, the exciting eye should be enucleated. On the other hand, if well-marked inflammation has developed in the sympathizing eye, which may also be cataractous, and the other eye has a fair amount of vision, it becomes extremely questionable whether it is advisable to enucleate the exciting eye. Every case must be judged on its own merits according to the extent and severity of the disease. In a few cases in which the incarceration of the capsule in the wound leads to a very chronic cyclitis, its division with a cutting needle will sometimes lead to subsidence of the inflammation. It is most important that every eye that has been operated on should be examined for the presence of keratitis punctata, especially before allowing the patient to use the eye or before another operation is performed on it.

5. Glaucoma following extraction occurs as a result of (a) soft lens matter blocking the angle of the anterior chamber. As a rule the tension will usually subside under eserine, but evacuation of the anterior chamber (see p. 233) may have to be performed; on the whole the results are satisfactory. (b) The incarceration of the capsule in the wound, pulling forward the iris and blocking the angle of the anterior chamber. Division of the lens capsule is usually sufficient to make the tension subside. Failing this, sclerotomy should be performed; the prognosis is not nearly so good when the increased tension is due to this cause.

6. Striate keratitis usually makes its appearance on the second or third day after operation. The cornea near the line of incision presents a grey striped appearance with the striæ arranged at right angles to the wound. Pathologically the condition is due to an infiltration of the deeper layers of the cornea, the striped appearance being caused by wrinkling of Descemet’s membrane; the condition probably arises from septic infection. As a rule the affection subsides without giving rise to further trouble, but occasionally local suppuration and even panophthalmitis may follow.

A grey horizontal line about the centre of the cornea is sometimes seen after an eye has been too tightly bandaged; this always disappears when the bandage is removed.

7. Erythropsia (red vision) occasionally follows the extraction of the lens, and is probably due to bleaching of the visual purple following the admission to the eye of an unusual amount of light; it usually disappears in a few weeks.

8. Defective vision. Glasses have to be worn after removal of the lens. Usually patients who were previously emmetropic require about + 11 to see clearly for distance and + 15 for near vision.

The section produces some flattening of the corneal curvature at right angles to the line of the incision; this usually amounts to about two diopters.

COUCHING

Couching is the removal of the lens from the pupillary area by depressing it backwards into the vitreous. It is rather a relic of the past than a present-day operation, although it is extensively practised by quacks in India. Under certain circumstances the operation still seems justifiable; it is very simple, and is followed by immediate restoration of vision, but the subsequent risks of irido-cyclitis, retinal detachment, and glaucoma are so great, that, according to some authorities, couching should only be undertaken in preference to extraction when the latter operation has only a chance of one in three of giving satisfactory vision.

Indications. The chief indications for its performance are:—

(i) The presence of a fluid vitreous, the patient having had the lens of the other eye extracted with bad results.

(ii) In the insane, where it would be impossible to carry out the after-treatment of extraction satisfactorily.

Operation. The operation is usually done under cocaine; in the case of the insane a general anæsthetic is usually necessary. It has been performed by simple depression of the lens backwards into the vitreous with a needle passed through the cornea (anterior route). This operation yields unsatisfactory results owing to the lens being liable to return into the pupil; this can be partly overcome by sweeping the needle round the periphery of the lens so as to divide the suspensory ligament, but the operation is not so satisfactory as when the needle is passed in from behind the ciliary body and the lens pressed down from behind (posterior route), to which the following description applies. The capsule of the lens should be torn freely, so that some absorption may subsequently take place and diminish the risk of complications.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, needle.

First step. The pupil should be dilated with atropine. The patient’s head should be well raised on the table. The needle is passed through the sclerotic about 5 millimetres behind the limbus to the outer side. The posterior capsule of the lens is then freely divided by a sweeping movement.

Second step. The needle is next made to appear in the lower part of the pupil by carrying it round the lower and outer border of the lens. The anterior capsule is then freely divided.

Third step. The shaft of the needle is laid flat on the surface of the lens towards its upper part, and by raising the handle of the needle the lens is displaced backwards into the vitreous. The tearing of the suspensory ligament on the inner side may be assisted by the cutting edge of the needle during depression.

Complications. Immediate. Difficulty may be experienced in making the lens lie at the bottom of the vitreous, and it is only by frequent depression of the lens backwards and downwards, with a sweeping movement of the needle to divide the suspensory ligament, that the desired effect can be obtained.

Remote. The lens nucleus may prolapse through the pupil into the anterior chamber. If this should happen, the patient should be placed on his back and the pupil dilated with atropine; if the nucleus does not go back into the vitreous chamber it should be depressed by means of a needle passed through the cornea.

Glaucoma may result from the dislocation of the nucleus into the anterior chamber and should be treated as described above. It may also be present with a lens which is dislocated backwards. This condition is very liable to end in loss of sight. Probably the only hope of relieving the tension is by the use of eserine or the performance of a cyclo-dialysis.

Cyclitis and retinal detachment may also follow, and usually end in blindness.

CHAPTER III

OPERATIONS UPON THE IRIS

IRIDOTOMY

Indications. Iridotomy is an operation which is performed when the iris has become drawn up after a cataract extraction, so that there is no pupil, or the pupillary area is covered by the upper lid. A long interval should elapse between the extraction and the iridotomy, since these cases have usually suffered from cyclitis following the operation. Iridotomy should not be performed for at least six months after all signs of cyclitis have disappeared, for the frequent failure of the operation is due to the fact that the opening made in the iris and underlying capsule becomes filled with fibrous exudation as the result of cyclitis, which is frequently set up again by the operation if undertaken before a sufficient time has elapsed for the eye to settle down after the inflammation. The ideal operation, therefore, is to make an artificial pupil with the least amount of trauma to the ciliary body.

Instruments. Speculum; fixation forceps; a long, narrow, bent ‘broad needle’; Tyrrell’s hook, iris scissors, iris forceps, and spatula.

Operation. Many operations have been devised for this most troublesome condition, but the following is the one that the author has found to be successful.

The operation is usually performed under a general anæsthetic, but this is not essential.

Fig. 102. Iridotomy. Showing the incision with a long, bent broad needle.

Fig. 103. Iridotomy. Showing the method of withdrawing the band of iris and capsule with a Tyrrell’s hook.

First step. The surgeon stands facing the patient on the same side as the eye to be operated on. The long, bent, broad cutting needle is passed into the anterior chamber from the limbus downwards and inwards, and is driven directly through the iris and underlying capsule. The needle is then made to pass in an upward and outward direction behind the iris into the pupillary area above, or if no pupil be present, again through the iris (Fig. 102). The bent broad needle is made to cut laterally by slightly deflecting the handle so as to produce a band of iris and capsule; the cutting needle is then withdrawn.

Second step. A Tyrrell’s hook, bent to the correct angle, is passed beneath the band (Fig. 103), which is drawn into the wound and removed with iris scissors. A large opening is thus obtained with a minimum amount of trauma. If the hook should slip, the band may be seized with iris forceps, withdrawn from the wound, and removed.

Alternative methods. The following methods have been practised:—

Simple incision across the fibres of the iris by means of Graefe’s or Knapp’s knife.

Division with scissors through a wound of the limbus.

By these two methods the opening produced is small, and is very liable to be closed by the subsequent cyclitis. The following operation yields more satisfactory results.

Kuhnt’s operation.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, Graefe’s knife, iris forceps and scissors.

First step. The surgeon, standing facing the patient, enters the anterior chamber about 2 millimetres inwards from the limbus at the junction of the middle and lower third of the cornea with a Graefe’s knife, the cutting edge directed downwards. The knife is then made to penetrate the iris and underlying capsule, and to travel beneath this to a similar point on the other side, where it is made to come back again into the anterior chamber by again penetrating the iris, and finally out again through the cornea. The knife is then made to cut out in a downward direction.

Fig. 104. Iridotomy by Ziegler’s Method. Showing the shape of the knife and the position of the first puncture in the iris; the cutting is performed by a sawing movement.

Second step. Iris forceps are inserted and the flap of iris and capsule is withdrawn and as much of it removed as possible. A more or less triangular opening usually results.

Ziegler’s operation.

Instruments. Ziegler’s knife needle, speculum, fixation forceps.

The object of the operation is to cut a V-shaped flap in the iris and underlying capsule, folding the flap backwards on its base so as to form a triangular opening in the iris membrane to serve as a pupil.

First step. The knife needle is entered at the corneo-sclerotic junction with the blade turned on the flat and is passed completely across the anterior chamber to within 3 mm. of the apparent iris periphery. The knife is then turned edge downwards, and carried 3 mm. to the left of the vertical plane (Fig. 104).

Second step. The point is now allowed to rest on the iris membrane, and with a dart-like thrust the membrane is pierced. Then the knife is drawn gently up and down with a saw-like motion, without making much pressure on the tissue to be cut, until the incision has been carried through the iris tissue from the puncture in the membrane to just beneath the corneal puncture. This movement is made wholly in a line with the long axis of the knife, the shank passing to and fro through the corneal puncture, loss of the aqueous being avoided in the manipulation (Fig. 105).

Third step. The pressure of the vitreous will now cause the edges of the incision to bulge open immediately into a long oval. The knife-blade is raised until it is above the iris membrane, and is then swung across the anterior chamber to a corresponding point on the right of the vertical plane. Owing to the disturbance in the relation of the parts made by the first cut, this point is somewhat displaced and the second puncture must be made 1 mm. further over.

Fig. 105. Iridotomy by Ziegler’s Method. Showing the first incision and the position of the second.

Fig. 106. Iridotomy by Ziegler’s Method. Final step; the triangular flap of iris attached at its base is turned downwards.

Fourth step. With the knife-point again resting on the membrane, a second puncture is made and the incision is carried rapidly forward by the sawing movement to meet the extremity of the first incision at the apex of the triangle, thus making a V-shaped cut. Care must be taken that the pressure of the knife-edge on the tissue shall be most gentle, and that the second incision shall terminate a trifle inside the extremity of the first, in order that the last fibres may be severed and thus allow the apex of the flap to fall down behind the lower part of the iris membrane (Fig. 106). When the operation has been completed the knife is turned on the flat and withdrawn.

IRIDECTOMY

The operation of iridectomy differs widely in its performance, according to the different conditions for which it is used. Hence it is better to prefix the condition for which it is employed, thus: preliminary iridectomy, optical iridectomy, glaucoma iridectomy.

Apart from being one of the stages of removal of a cataract, already described, it is performed as an independent operation in the following conditions:—

1. For optical purposes (optical iridectomy).

2. For the relief of glaucoma, primary and secondary (glaucoma iridectomy).

3. For small growths at the free margin of the iris.

4. For prolapse of the iris through a wound.

OPTICAL IRIDECTOMY

Indications. Iridectomy for optical purposes is performed for a centrally situated nebula of the cornea and in some very rare cases of small central opacities in the lens. In the latter condition it is rarely of much value, as nearly all the rays which enter the eye pass through the central portion of the lens. Further, in this condition the lens may be removed and better sight obtained with glasses. Optical iridectomy should always be performed opposite a clear portion of the cornea, the lower segment of the eye being chosen, otherwise the coloboma may be subsequently covered by the upper lid. The site of election for the operation is downwards and inwards, but in all cases the patient should be carefully examined in the following ways: (1) the vision is tested, any refraction being corrected without a mydriatic; (2) the pupil is then dilated, and the best situation for the iridectomy determined by means of a stenopaic slit. The vision must be definitely improved by the use of these before operation can be advised. The disadvantage of an iridectomy is that it allows more light to enter the eye, and, if the periphery of the lens be uncovered, spherical aberration may result. For both these reasons, therefore, it is advisable to make the iridectomy as small as possible. Tattooing of the central scar in the cornea will often diminish the amount of light entering the eye, but before undertaking the latter operation, the eye should be cocainized and the area covered with a piece of black paper to see if the vision is improved thereby.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, bent broad needle or small keratome, Tyrrell’s hook, iris forceps, scissors, and spatula.

Operation. The operation is usually performed under cocaine.

First step. The eye is fixed by grasping the conjunctiva directly opposite the spot at which the incision is to be made. The incision is then made by means of a keratome or bent broad needle directly behind the limbus, and enlarged laterally if desired (Fig. 107).

Fig. 107. Optical Iridectomy. The incision being made with a keratome.

Fig. 108. Optical Iridectomy. Method of removing the iris to produce a small coloboma.

Second step. A Tyrrell’s hook, bent at the correct angle, is passed on the flat into the anterior chamber. When the margin of the iris is reached the handle is rotated and the hook is made to engage the free border of the iris, which is then withdrawn from the wound; a small portion is removed with scissors, which should be held at right angles to the wound when dividing the iris (Fig. 108).

Third step. The iris should be carefully replaced and the pupil kept under the influence of eserine until the anterior chamber has re-formed, when atropine should be substituted.

Fig. 109. Optical Iridectomy. Showing the coloboma.

Care must be taken to see that the Tyrrell’s hook presents no sharp angle, and great care is required in its manipulation, otherwise the lens capsule may be damaged, and traumatic cataract will result. If the iris slips from the grasp of the Tyrrell’s hook, iris forceps should be used, the iris being grasped near its free margin and as small a portion as possible withdrawn.

Brudenell Carter’s method. The ordinary optical iridectomy divides the sphincter iridis and so inhibits the activity of the pupil. With the idea of obviating this, Brudenell Carter removed a small portion of the iris (button-hole), leaving the pupillary margin intact. On the whole the results of the latter operation are no more satisfactory, and the operation is more dangerous to perform owing to the likelihood of wounding the lens, and to the fact that monocular diplopia occasionally results.

The pupil should be under the influence of eserine. The incision is made as in the previous operation. De Wecker’s iris scissors are inserted open into the anterior chamber, closed, and the piece of iris which bulges up between the blades cut off; this can usually be withdrawn with the scissors; or if not, it should be removed subsequently by forceps.

GLAUCOMA IRIDECTOMY

Fig. 110. The Normal Angle of the Anterior Chamber. A. Cornea. B. Ciliary processes. C. Iris. D. Ciliary muscle. E. Pectinate ligament, to the right of which is the angle of the chamber. F. Canal of Schlemm. G. Lens. H. Posterior chamber. I. Anterior chamber.

Surgical and pathological anatomy. The fluid in the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye is secreted from the ciliary body by a process of modified filtration. The fluid passes partly direct into the posterior chamber and partly behind the suspensory ligament of the lens, making its way forward into the posterior chamber through the fibres of the suspensory ligament. From the posterior chamber it passes into the anterior through the pupil; from the anterior it filters at the angle of the anterior chamber through the ligamentum pectinatum into the canal of Schlemm; thence it is carried into the blood-stream by the venous anastomosis in that region (Fig. 110).

The essential change found in all cases of primary glaucoma is the blocking of the angle of the anterior chamber owing to the root of the iris being applied to the back of the cornea, and thus preventing the filtration of the fluid into the canal of Schlemm, as a result of which the tension of the eye is raised, either acutely (acute glaucoma) or slowly from time to time (chronic glaucoma) (Fig. 111). The aim of every operation for the permanent relief of glaucoma is the opening up of Schlemm’s canal at the angle of the anterior chamber or the creation of a new lymph channel between the anterior chamber and the subconjunctival tissue (filtrating cicatrix). Although this latter condition is not unattended by the risk of the spread of inflammation from the conjunctiva to the interior of the globe, it is not an inadvisable condition to obtain in some cases of chronic glaucoma if the scar be small and free from iris tissue; in this disease the opening up of the canal of Schlemm by iridectomy is often impossible. (See Sclerectomy, p. 231.)

Fig. 111. The Angle of the Anterior Chamber from a Case of Recent Glaucoma. Showing its occlusion by the base of the iris, A, being adherent to the posterior surface of the cornea, so preventing filtration of the aqueous into the canal of Schlemm, B.

Indications. Since the days of von Graefe, who first performed iridectomy empirically for the relief of glaucoma, the operation has held the first place in its treatment.

(i) In primary glaucoma. Iridectomy should be undertaken as early as possible in the disease. In acute cases, unless the tension is relieved, the disease ends in rapid destruction of the sight. Operation should always be undertaken as quickly as possible, provided the patient has not lost his perception of light for longer than about ten days.

Whilst waiting for the operation, the pupil should be put under the influence of eserine (2 to 4 grains to the oz.) with the idea of reducing the tension by contraction of the pupil. Some surgeons, in addition to using eserine, perform a posterior scleral puncture with the idea of temporarily reducing the tension and allowing the acute symptoms to subside, and do the iridectomy some twenty-four to forty-eight hours later. This method is extremely useful (a) in cases where a general anæsthetic is inadvisable, since the reduction of tension allows cocaine to diffuse into the eye; (b) in cases liable to subsequent intra-ocular hæmorrhage, a more gradual reduction of tension being obtained, rupture of a choroidal vessel is less likely to occur; (c) a deeper anterior chamber is often obtained, and hence there is less risk of wounding the lens during the operation; (d) in cases where the operation has been performed in one eye and the lens has been subsequently extruded on the dressings.

In chronic cases early iridectomy is desirable, since the root of the iris applied to the posterior surface of the cornea becomes atrophic, so that when an iridectomy is performed the iris tears off at the anterior part of the atrophic portion, leaving the angle of the chamber still occluded by its root (Figs. 112 and 113). It is especially in these cases that a filtrating cicatrix, which sometimes follows iridectomy or sclerotomy, is desirable, and indeed some surgeons (Herbert and Lagrange, see p. 231), have recently performed operations with this idea in view, and it is probable that this operation or cyclo-dialysis will prove to be of use in these cases.

Fig. 112. The Angle of the Chamber in a case of Chronic Glaucoma. The iris, A, has become atrophic at its root. An iridectomy in this case would not free the angle of the chamber, as the iris would separate at the point A.

Fig. 113. Iridectomy for Glaucoma. Failure to relieve the tension owing to the iris not tearing off at its junction with the ciliary body, due to atrophy from prolonged contact with the cornea.

Operation is only contra-indicated in a few very rare cases in which the tension is controlled by the use of eserine.

(ii) In congenital glaucoma (bup[h]thalmos). In this affection the results of iridectomy vary. Without doubt, the tension has been relieved by iridectomy in some cases, and either this operation, sclerectomy, or cyclo-dialysis should be tried if the disease be not too far advanced.

(iii) In secondary glaucoma. For obvious reasons the predisposing causes should always be taken into consideration. Thus it would be of no use to perform an iridectomy in the case of a growth in the choroid. On the other hand, an iridectomy would be unjustifiable for soft lens matter in the anterior chamber, which merely requires evacuation. An early iridectomy in cyclitis is not likely to influence the course of the disease favourably; at the most a paracentesis is required. As the early stages of cyclitis may give rise to tension, it is essential that every case of glaucoma should be examined for keratitis punctata before operation.

In iris bombé and total posterior synechiæ an iridectomy is indicated more to re-establish the communication between the anterior and posterior chambers than to clear the angle, and therefore it need not be so extensive. In cases of iris bombé where iritis is still present, and in cases of cysts of the iris, transfixion is all that is necessary.

It is very doubtful if iridectomy in glaucoma following thrombosis of the central vein is justifiable, for as a rule the tension is not permanently relieved thereby. In secondary glaucoma following cataract extraction or anterior synechiæ, division of the capsule or the anterior synechiæ will often relieve the tension.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, Graefe’s knife (with a short, stiff, narrow blade), iris forceps, scissors, and spatula.

Operation. With the idea of opening up the angle of the anterior chamber by removing the iris as near its root as possible, the incision should be made somewhat further back behind the corneo-sclerotic junction than in cataract extraction. At the same time, if the incision be placed too far back the ciliary body is liable to prolapse into the wound. The old idea of opening up the canal of Schlemm by dividing it has been abandoned, as to do so would certainly result in prolapse of the ciliary body; and even if this did not happen, no good would result, since the canal would become closed subsequently by cicatricial tissue.

Although von Graefe used a keratome for making the incision, most British surgeons of the present day use a Graefe’s knife, as it gives an incision that is less shelving and more irregular, thus predisposing to the formation of a filtrating scar; a good conjunctival flap is obtained with it and there is less risk of wounding the lens.

When performing the iridectomy it is practically impossible to cut the iris with scissors at its attachment to the ciliary body, and it is better to rely on tearing it off from the ciliary body, as it is in this situation that the iris is thinnest and most likely to give way, provided it has not become atrophic by prolonged contact with the cornea.

In acute cases and in cases of secondary glaucoma where there are many adhesions a general anæsthetic is desirable.

First step. The incision. The position of the surgeon is as for cataract extraction. The eye is fixed by grasping the conjunctiva close to the limbus downwards and inwards. If the patient be under an anæsthetic, two pairs of fixation forceps should be used, one being held by an assistant. Occasionally in glaucoma the conjunctiva tears very easily, and in these cases scleral forceps are of use, or, if the knife be already in the eye, grasping the insertion of the superior or inferior rectus. The Graefe’s knife should be directed downwards and inwards towards the point of fixation, the point being passed through the sclerotic 1.5 mm. behind the limbus to the outer side. Directly the anterior chamber is entered, the handle is depressed towards the patient’s chin. The knife-point is kept superficial to the iris and is passed very slowly across the anterior chamber, close to its periphery until the position of the counter-puncture is reached. The counter-puncture should be situated about 1 mm. behind the limbus in a direct line with the original puncture. Care must be taken in making the counter-puncture that the knife-point does not slip back on the sclerotic and so emerge further back in the eye than is desired. The knife is then made to cut out upwards and a good conjunctival flap is obtained. The incision should be carried out slowly, so that the aqueous escapes gradually, as sudden reduction in the intra-ocular tension is liable to lead to intra-ocular hæmorrhage.

Fig. 114. Iridectomy for Glaucoma. Showing the position in which the iris should be grasped with forceps.

Fig. 115. Iridectomy for Glaucoma. Showing the irido-dialysis produced before division.

Fig. 116. Iridectomy for Glaucoma. Division of the iris to form the inner angle of the coloboma. The iris is pulled out as far as possible before removal.

Second step. The iridectomy. The iris forceps are inserted closed into the anterior chamber, opened, and made to grasp the iris near the periphery (Fig. 114) towards the side of the wound on which the iris is first to be divided; then with a slight side-to-side movement of the forceps the iris is withdrawn from the wound until its peripheral attachment to the ciliary body, near where it is held by the forceps, is felt or seen to give way (irido-dialysis) (Fig. 115). The iris is then drawn a little further out from the wound, and one side of the dialysis is divided with the scissors as near the scleral wound as possible. The iris held in the forceps is then pulled over to the other angle of the wound, and as much of it as possible is pulled out and divided close to the scleral incision (Fig. 116). The angles of the incision are freed from iris by means of the spatula and the conjunctival flap is replaced in position. Both eyes are then bandaged.

After-treatment. The patient should be kept in bed for a week, and during the first four days should not be allowed to raise the head from the pillow. After that time the eye not operated upon may be uncovered; eserine should have been instilled into it before the operation and at subsequent dressings to prevent the possible onset of glaucoma owing to the dilatation of the pupil which follows the application of the bandage to the eye. It is not necessary to use any mydriatic or myotic for the eye which has been operated upon.

Complications. These may be immediate or remote.

Immediate. 1. In passing a Graefe’s knife into the anterior chamber to make the section, care must be taken that the cutting edge is directed upwards. If by accident it should be inserted with the cutting edge directed downwards the knife should be withdrawn and the operation postponed for a day or two until the anterior chamber has re-formed.

Care must be taken that the cutting edge is kept on the same plane as the upper edge of the back of the knife, otherwise the incision is liable to pass further back than is intended.

2. Splitting the cornea. The anterior chamber often being little more than a potential space, the knife may be passed between the lamellæ of the cornea and may not enter the anterior chamber at all. The indication that the knife-point is not in the anterior chamber is that there is no diminished resistance, such as is usually felt when the knife enters the chamber; if its point be slightly depressed, the cornea will be seen to dimple in over the position of it, showing that the point is not free in the anterior chamber.

3. Locking of the knife. This is due to the fact that the puncture and counter-puncture are not made in the same plane, the knife being twisted. It is much more liable to occur if a knife be chosen with a blade which is not sufficiently stiff. As a rule the blade can be made to cut out, but failing this, the knife should be withdrawn sufficiently to allow a fresh counter-puncture to be made, or else withdrawn altogether and the operation postponed.

4. Wound of the lens. The great safeguard against wounding the lens is to keep the point of the knife always superficial to the iris and in the periphery of the anterior chamber. If the lens be definitely wounded at the time of the operation it should be extracted immediately after the iridectomy. If the wound be only subsequently discovered (usually about the third or fourth day), provided the lens be not presenting in the wound, the eye should be allowed to settle down and the traumatic cataract extracted some time after the tenth day.

Fig. 117. Glaucoma Iridectomy. Failure to relieve the tension owing to displacement of the lens.

5. Presentation of the lens in its capsule. The lens may present in its capsule at the time of the operation or be found subsequently on the dressings. In the latter instance it is very liable to carry iris into the wound, and a cystoid cicatrix results. This accident is usually due to increased tension in the vitreous chamber; a large incision, especially if placed rather far back in the sclerotic, will also favour its occurrence. If the accident should happen to one eye, and acute glaucoma be present in the other, it is advisable to do a posterior scleral puncture before the iridectomy is performed. Partial dislocation of the lens forward may occur after the wound has healed, leaving the tension of the eye not reduced. This is a condition extremely difficult to recognize, and it is usually only discovered pathologically; if recognized clinically, extraction of the lens should be performed (Fig. 117).

6. Intra-ocular hæmorrhage. Hæmorrhage into the anterior chamber occurs at the time of the operation and is readily absorbed; occasionally it may persist for a considerable time in cases of glaucoma of long standing.

After the operation hæmorrhage may also occur from the cut margin of the iris, which never heals, viz. never becomes covered with endothelium. The hæmorrhage may occur as late as two weeks after the operation and may recur from time to time; it is especially liable to occur in old people with arterio-sclerosis. It is usually absorbed without giving rise to any trouble beyond delay in the convalescence.

Retinal hæmorrhages are frequent and usually small, but a considerable hæmorrhage may take place into the vitreous. As a rule these clear up satisfactorily unless the macular region be involved.

Subchoroidal hæmorrhage. Of all the immediate complications which follow an intra-ocular operation this is by far the worst. The hæmorrhage is due to the giving way of a large choroidal vessel following the sudden reduction of tension, with the result that the choroid and retina are stripped up from the sclerotic, and, with the lens, may be partially extruded from the wound in the globe, from which the hæmorrhage then proceeds. It may occur whilst the patient is still on the operating table, or it may be discovered only after he has been put back to bed, the blood being seen coming through the dressings. Patients who have this condition complain of pain in the ‘corner of the eye’ at the time of the operation. The treatment consists in evisceration or enucleation. It is probable that limited extravasation of blood may also occur, which need not end in disintegration of the eye, but may cause vitreous opacity and defective vision for some weeks after the operation.

Remote. 1. The tension is not reduced by the iridectomy. In acute cases the prognosis with regard to the reduction of the tension and the improvement of vision is very satisfactory. The same cannot be said of chronic cases, especially those which have been operated on rather late in the disease. If iridectomy, which may be repeated downwards or extended from the previous coloboma, fail to reduce the tension, one or more of the following measures should be adopted:—

(a) The use of eserine.

(b) Sclerotomy.

(c) Cyclo-dialysis.

(d) Sclerectomy.

(e) Post-scleral puncture.

It is probably in this order that they should be tried.

2. Prolapse of the iris and irido-cyclitis should be treated as already indicated under cataract extraction (see p. 208).

3. The onset of glaucoma in the other eye may be induced by the dilatation of the pupil caused by bandaging, and is best avoided by the use of eserine. If it should occur, an iridectomy should be performed.

4. Astigmatism produced by the incision is corrected with glasses. This astigmatism is very marked, often amounting to six or eight diopters or more.

IRIDECTOMY FOR SMALL GROWTHS OF THE IRIS

Indications. This is performed—

In the latter instance it is obvious that the growth must be very small and situated at the free margin of the iris to yield a satisfactory result, especially if it be of a malignant character.

Operation. The operation is performed under cocaine, eserine having been previously instilled in order to contract the pupil.

First step. An incision should be made with a narrow Graefe’s knife in the limbus in a position most suitable for removing the growth. The incision should be as large as possible so as to avoid wiping off any portions of the growth into the anterior chamber.

Second step. The iris should be seized well in the periphery so as to avoid breaking up the growth; it is then withdrawn with the growth, and the latter removed.

IRIDECTOMY FOR PROLAPSE OF THE IRIS

This operation is usually performed for prolapse of the iris following a wound of the cornea or limbus, and may be attempted up to about the third day after the original injury.

Operation. A general anæsthetic is usually desirable. The prolapsed iris should be seized with the forceps and withdrawn from the wound. A second pair of forceps is used to take a fresh hold on the iris, which can usually be drawn out further (Fig. 118). It is then divided as close to the corneal wound as possible. The iris usually flies back into the anterior chamber clear of the corneal wound by its own elasticity, but if it does not do so it should be freed with a spatula. The pupil should be kept subsequently under atropine.

Fig. 118. Prolapse of the Iris through a Punctured Wound of the Cornea. Method of withdrawing the iris by two pairs of iris forceps before removal.

TRANSFIXION OF THE IRIS

Indications. This operation is undertaken in cases of iris bombé when iritis is still present and when an iridectomy would subsequently lead to a drawn-up pupil. It is also of service to evacuate the contents of cysts of the iris (local iris bombé).

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, Graefe’s knife (narrow).

Operation. The knife is entered at the limbus from the outer side directly opposite the occluded pupil. The apex of the iris bombé is transfixed and the point of the knife made to appear above the pupillary area; the iris bombé on the other side of the pupil is then transfixed and the knife is withdrawn.

THE DIVISION OF ANTERIOR SYNECHIÆ

Indications. Anterior synechiæ rarely require division unless they are likely to cause tension or the adherent iris is considered a source of danger to the eye on account of its liability to septic infection. If the synechiæ are causing tension, the method of division described under sclerotomy is probably the most satisfactory; otherwise the following method devised by Lang can be used.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, Lang’s knives—one with a sharp point, and one blunt.

Operation. Under cocaine. The incision is made at the limbus in a favourable situation for the division of the synechia. The sharp-pointed knife is introduced into the anterior chamber and then rapidly withdrawn so as not to lose the aqueous. The blunt knife is then inserted through the incision and, partly by cutting and partly by tearing, the synechia is divided in a direction from the periphery towards the pupil.

The operation is not at all easy to perform, since the iris gives before the knife. Great care should be taken to avoid evacuating the aqueous, as the operation is thereby rendered much more difficult or even impossible.

CHAPTER IV

OPERATIONS UPON THE SCLEROTIC

ANTERIOR SCLEROTOMY

Indications. Sclerotomy is an operation undertaken for the relief of increased intra-ocular tension. It is performed—

(i) Usually as a secondary operation when iridectomy has failed.

(ii) As a primary operation for the division of anterior synechiæ causing tension.

A few surgeons prefer the operation to iridectomy, especially in cases of bup[h]thalmos. When practised after an iridectomy which has been done upwards, the sclerotomy is sometimes performed in a downward direction; otherwise the section is usually made upwards. The intra-ocular tension is probably relieved by the formation of a filtration cicatrix, and it is therefore probable that it may be largely superseded by the operations of cyclo-dialysis and sclerectomy.

When performed for the division of anterior synechiæ the position of the incision should be planned according to the situation of the synechia to be divided.

Instruments. Speculum, fixation forceps, Graefe’s knife with a narrow blade.