The treatment of mucomembranous colitis by colostomy / by John M. Elder.

  • Elder, John Munro, 1859-
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The treatment of mucomembranous colitis by colostomy / by John M. Elder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    method can readily be seen to be applicable only to those cases in which the appendix is freely movable and is long enough to be brought to the surface and utilized as a drainage tube, which an abdominal surgeon knows is not likely to be found in a very large percentage of cases. The older and oft tried method of right inguinal col- ostomy seems to suit well in the majority of cases, and when we consider that nearly all the patients presenting themselves are chronic invalids, the six weeks or so necessarily spent in hospitals while the fistula is open is by no means too long a period in which to obtain relief from a condition which has often existed for nearly as many years. The inconvenience of the frequent changing of dressings seems to be the only serious drawback, as the mortality from the operation itself seems to be very small. The subsequent closure of the faecal fistula I found very simple and easy. If I have succeeded in arousing more interest in the surgical treatment of chronic colitis by this paper, I shall feel that a point more has been scored in the advance of surgical therapeutics. 4201 Sherbrooke Street. References. 1. Hale White. Lancet, 1895, page 537. 2. Keith. Lancet, 1895, page 639. 3. Hale White and Golding-Bird. Transactions of the Clin. Soc., London, 1896, vol. xxix, page 45. 4. Hale White and Golding-Bird. Lancet, 1899, vol. i, page 1364. 5- Lawrie. British Med. Journal, November 5, 1898, page 1426. *