This treatment is rendered entirely painless by the use of a solution which is injected underneath the skin with a fine hollow needle attached to a small syringe, and which tends to produce complete local anæsthesia, or loss of feeling so that the procedure is thoroughly and carefully carried out without any risk or discomfort.
The needle used by us for the treatment of the hernia is so perfected that any possible injection of the fluid into the abdominal cavity, or upon the coating of the intestine, is an impossibility, and in no way can an injection be made into a blood vessel or nerve so as to produce any discomfort or trouble. We thus avoid all the risks that pertain to the usual plan of injection.
There is a small percentage of cases, as before stated, in which this form of treatment is not likely to give a permanent cure, from the fact that the omentum or intestine has become adherent externally, to the sac, or in the scrotum, to the coverings of the testicle. This makes the complete replacement of the rupture without cutting an impossibility, and in such cases even where the hernial opening is closed, treatment by injection only would not result in a permanent cure.
Our aim is to treat all cases of rupture that we undertake in such a manner that by no possibility can the deformity return. We therefore have for the cure of these cases another method, by which with our local anæsthetic fluid, we are able to perform a surgical operation without any distress whatever to the patient. The greatest risk of the old operation for rupture was the danger of general anæsthesia with chloroform or ether, or some similar agent. The great majority of individuals cannot bear the inhalation of the large quantities of these anæsthetics necessary to secure loss of feeling without consequent nausea, and at times an effect upon the heart that often results seriously. The risk from the anæsthetic is much greater than from the surgical procedure. By our method, this risk is entirely done away with. The pain dispelling fluid enables our operator to pursue his method without giving the patient any pain or discomfort whatever. During the operation he is in full possession of all his faculties, and can assist in any way desired by coughing, or straining, in order, at any time, to complete the protrusion of the rupture and show its entire extent of surface when the sac is laid bare. We then replace the rupture completely; suture the sac so that the rupture will have no pocket into which to descend, and then firmly unite the rings by a plan that we have invented, and by which they are made more strong and firm than in their original state.
Early in our experience, and while using the plan of treatment that is usually employed for the radical cure of rupture, we had occasional relapses of the difficulty, but since using our improved method we have had no such trouble. We can assure our patients that there is less risk of the appearance of the rupture at the point where the operation is performed than there is of a new breach forming. The success of this treatment has been invariable. None of the plans of treatment that we pursue for the cure of rupture tend to keep the patient in bed more than a few hours. There is little or no pain, after either of our plans of treatment, and out of the many hundreds which we have treated and perfectly cured, in no instance have we had any inflammation or serious manifestation—there being no fever or general reaction. It is a matter of great surprise to our patients, who undergo our treatment for the radical cure of rupture, that by our varied methods, the object is accomplished with so little discomfort and with no pain whatever.
From two to three weeks' personal attention of our specialist, is usually all that is required even in the worst cases.
No truss is needed after our treatment. We consider a case cured only when the patient is able to do without a truss or support in all the usual walks and vocations of life.
TESTIMONIALS.
The testimonials that we append are but a small number out of the great mass that we have received. A very large percentage of individuals who have been treated by us for rupture desire that their disability be held a matter of sacred confidence and with all such we take pleasure in guarding their confidence with the greatest care. Others are quite willing that their experience may be made public in this manner for the benefit of similar sufferers.