American Gynecology Volume 1 (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. 1902 Excerpt: ...sensitive. Interference was postponed and during the afternoon rhythmic pains closely resembling those of labor began and continued until she was removed to hospital late at night. As she was in a very bad condition and everything pointed to a threatened miscarriage with possibly some abdominal complication, it was decided to empty the uterus and then to open the abdomen. This was heroic treatment, I acknowledge, but we were misled in our diagnosis by, first, everything pointing so distinctly to intrauterine pregnancy; and secondly by the fact that just before retiring on the night of July 3 and while very warm she drank a large quantity of ice water. On exploring the uterus we found it but slightly enlarged, empty, and lying embedded in the above-mentioned mass. The diagnosis of ruptured ectopic gestation was now easy and on opening the abdomen a ruptured tube, from which had escaped a five months' fetus with its membranes, was removed. The patient made an uninterrupted recovery. This case was very in structive as showing how a normal pregnancy may be simulated closely by one of the most dangerous affections from which woman can suffer and it affords a strong argument in favor of making a most careful examination of all supposedly pregnant women as soon as they place themselves under one's care. As I have previously stated, it is very seldom that a case goes as far as this before showing an unmistakable danger signal. Usually between the sixth and twelfth weeks of gestation the patient is seized with an agonizingly sharp pain in the affected side, accompanied with more or less profound collapse, the pulse becoming rapid, small and weak, the face blanched with respirations sighing. Vision is affected, everything appearing to be blurred and indistinct. A fee...