Papers on the Female Perineum, Etc (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1879 Excerpt: ... 'CHAPTER XII. The Restoration of the Perineum. The operation which I now propose briefly to describe has received various names. That which I use, and which forms the title to this chapter, is open to some objections--and yet I prefer it, because it indicates the chief object of the proceeding. The perineum may be restored in order that it may aid in closing the vagina, and prevent, or assist in preventing, the procidence of the womb, or of other pelvic organs. The perineum may be restored because its restoration implies the reconstruction of the anus, and restoration of the function of the sphincter ani. But the name is not in every sense apt, for in many cases the operation is performed on an anatomically entire perineum. When procidentia occurs in a virgin, for example, and demands this operation, as it occasionally does, then the surgical interference has not for its object the anatomical restoration of the perineum, but the formation of a new, adventitious, or supplementary perineum, in addition to, or continuation of, the old or present one, whose mechanical function of closing the lower part of the vagina has been impaired or lost, or at any rate requires to be improved or added to. The restoration of the perineum may imply, then, not merely what the name sufficiently indicates, but the formation of new perineum in addition to what may be present, whether that is partly damaged anatomically or entirely uninjured anatomically. When the perineum is ruptured in the course of the second stage of labour, or otherwise, as in the analogous extraction of a large fibrous tumour of the womb, almost no evil is thereby entailed on the woman if she is in other respects healthy, unless the injury reaches the sphincter ani. If the laceration goes no farther than to...