Appendicitis and its surgical treatment : with a report of seventy-five operated cases / by Herman Mynter.

  • Mynter, Herman, 1845-1903.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Appendicitis and its surgical treatment : with a report of seventy-five operated cases / by Herman Mynter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    acknowledges thai in certain forme of appendicitis opera- tion Lb the only measure that can avert a fatal termina- tion : 1. All cases of acute perforative appendicitis with dif- fuse peritonitis. Here laparotomy gives the only chance, and the earlier it is performed the better. 2. Cases of perforative appendicitis with localized ab- . a* there is the possibility of sudden irruption into the peritonea] cavity with fatal results. 3. In rapidly progressing cases, quickly leading to gan- grene, in order to forestall the perforation. 4. In eases of recurrent or relapsing appendicitis where the attacks are so severe or so frequent as seriously to interfere with the duties of the patient. One wonders which cases he would leave to medical treatment and what he means when he says,1 'that the all-important practical classification must ever be (1) operative appendicitis and (2) non-operative appen- dicitis. Hawkins,2 in 1805, tried honestly and fairly to solve the difficult question by the aid of statistics, working, however, with small numbers. His conclusions from two hundred and sixty-four patients are that if all his relapsing cases (fifty-nine in all) had been operated on during or immediately after the first attack Beven lives would have been saved and fifty-two other individuals would have been spared a more or less Bevere illness, provided, of cour>e, that these fifty-nine early lapa- rotomies had terminated favorably. If, however, the mortality of the operations is BO -mall that it may be neglected, and if I am wrong in doubting its efficacy in • it.. ]>. 1 • ti.'- Vermiform Appendix, London, iv,.'>.