Ovarian tumors and their treatment : excepting ovariotomy / by E.R. Peaslee.

  • Peaslee, E. R. (Edmund Randolph), 1814-1878.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ovarian tumors and their treatment : excepting ovariotomy / by E.R. Peaslee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    OVARIAN TUMORS AND THEIR TREATMENT. Mr. President and Fellows :—He must be a very sanguine therapeutist who believes at the present day, that mere medicines can exert any influence in the cure of ovarian tumors. Medica- tion, skilfully applied, may be productive of great benefit in sus- taining the patient's general health, and thus enabling her longer to resist the ini'oads of the disease ; but for its cure, surgical methods alone are of any value/' I propose to call the attention of the Academy to the treatment of ovarian tumors somewhat in detail, it being the object of the present paper to discuss the various surgical operations which have been resorted to with this end, exceptiug only the operation of ovariotomy; which I will consider at some future meeting. Of course, it will be understood that I entirely pretermit malig- nant diseases of the ovary as not demanding surgical interference of any kind. And for my purpose, it is only necessary to recog- nise the two classes of ovarian tumors—the solid and the cystic— and the two varieties of the latter—the monocystic or unilocular, and the polycystic or multilocular. So far, however, as most of the methods of treatment are concerned, we have the single sac or monocystic tumor on the one hand ; while on the other, the polycystic and the solid tumor are to be grouped together, as will become apparent further on. Of the minute structure of either of these groups, it is not pertinent to my present purpose to speak. When I speak of the cure of ovarian tumors, I mean the radical cure by extirpation of the diseased mass; or its diminution and arrest of development to such a degree that it is not afterwards perceived as an inconvenience by the patient during life. On the present occasion, I speak only of the latter form of cure, though 1 use the word under a protest, since the disease, in the cases termed successful, is rather conquered than cured, and this frequently only for a limited period. Some of the procedures of which I have now to speak are, however, merely palliative in their * See Report of three casei> by Dr. Roemer, of Va., of ovarian sacs, said to be cured by iodine, by stomach and on abdomen—1 in 10 days, another in 15 days, the last in 5 months.—Am. Jour. Med. Sciences, Apr. '57, p. 332.