The causes of cirsocele are, venereal excesses, masturbation, protracted exercise on foot or horseback, contusions of the scrotum, inflammation of the testicle, and mechanical obstacles to the return of the blood to the spermatic veins, whether produced by the presence of a tumour, fatty accumulations of the omentum or mesentery, or the wearing of tight and ill-constructed trusses. Of these the first two are probably the most frequent and influential. Indeed, I am persuaded, from considerable experience, that this is the case. How these causes act in developing this affection admits of ready explanation. Their tendency is not only to determine an abundant afflux of blood to, and consequent congestion in, the genital organs, but to produce more or less fatigue in the muscles of those parts, especially in the cremaster and dartos, together with a loss of nervous innervation, which diminish their power and contractile energy. The testicle being thus insufficiently sustained sinks down, by its own weight, into the scrotum, which, with the spermatic vessels, is thereby kept in a state of constant relaxation. Heat acts in a similar manner, and produces similar results. Hence cirsocele is more frequent in hot than in temperate climates, and worse in summer than in winter.—ED.]
[57] [Although the symptoms of this affection are usually well marked, yet it is sometimes liable to be confounded with other lesions. The malady for which it is most apt to be mistaken is inguinal hernia, especially that variety of it in which the omentum is concerned. The best way in such cases is to place the patient on his back, and hold up the scrotum until the vessels are entirely emptied of their contents; the finger is then applied against the external ring and the patient requested to rise, when, if the disease be cirsocele, the spermatic veins will immediately refill, while, if it be hernia, the bowel will be unable to descend.
The progress of this disease is usually tardy, years elapsing before it causes much suffering or inconvenience. In some instances, however, it increases with great rapidity, and gives rise to severe local disorder, with more or less constitutional derangement. One of the most serious and unpleasant effects of this disease is atrophy of the testicle and epididymis, produced by the pressure of the enlarged veins; it may exist in various degrees, from the slightest softness and diminution of volume to almost entire wasting of the organ, and occasionally, though rarely, affects both sides simultaneously. A gloomy and melancholy state of mind, sometimes bordering upon alienation, frequently attends this condition of the testicle.—ED.]
[58] [The least objectionable operation, in my opinion, is that of tying the affected veins, after having carefully separated them from the spermatic artery, vas deferens, and nerves of the testicle. The vessels may be ligatured at one or more points, according to the extent of the enlargement; and, by carefully excluding the structures just mentioned, there will be no danger of cutting off the nervous and vascular supply, as must necessarily happen, in some degree, in the proceeding recommended by Mr. Liston, and which must therefore lead to further wasting of the testicle; a circumstance which should be most sedulously avoided. The external incision need not exceed an inch and a half in length.
I am induced to subjoin the following account of a novel but harsh operation for the cure of cirsocele, lately devised by Mons. Breschet of Paris, not from any belief or hope that it will be generally adopted, but because it has made some noise in the surgical world. It is founded upon the anatomical arrangement of the part, or the facility with which the varicose vessels can be isolated from the spermatic artery and vas deferens, and afterwards compressed so as to obliterate their calibre. This is effected by means of a forceps with flattened plates, which are worked by a screw. The pressure is applied in a gradual manner, but with sufficient force to destroy the vitality of the scrotum and of the affected vessels. The instrument is usually removed in from six to eight days, during which the patient is left on his back, cold lotions are applied to the scrotum, and the case treated on general principles. When the sloughs are detached, the edges of the sore are approximated by adhesive strips, and the person is permitted to walk about. In this way Mons. Breschet is said to have operated successfully in more than a hundred cases; the average period required for a complete cure being twenty-three days. I have never performed this operation, the severity of which is such as to induce the belief that very few persons in this republican country would submit to it. An American surgeon, Dr. F. Hamilton, of New-York, has recently recommended castration for the relief of this affection, and has published several cases in which he performed the operation in illustration of its efficacy. This is certainly a radical mode of doing business, but in my opinion a very objectionable one.—ED.]
[59] [Of 5376 calculous cases mentioned by Civiale,[60] 2416 were children, 2167 adults, and 793 old persons. Of these 1946 occurred before the age of ten, 943 from ten to twenty, 460 from twenty to thirty, 330 from thirty to forty, 391 from forty to fifty, 513 from fifty to sixty, 577 from sixty to seventy, 199 from seventy to eighty, and 17 after eighty.
Children are more subject to this affection in certain districts than in others; and the same is true in regard to adults. The greater proportion of calculous cases in Wirtemberg, in the mountains of Switzerland, the Neapolitan States, and some of the provinces of England, occur in young persons, from causes which have not hitherto been explained. In the United States a larger number of children are afflicted with this disorder in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, than perhaps in any other sections. In very warm or cold latitudes, on the contrary, adults, and, above all, old people appear to be most liable to it.
Whether this affection is actually hereditary or not is not yet fully decided. Facts certainly warrant the inference that it is. Thus, Civiale relates the case of a man on whom he practised lithotrity, whose mother had had the stone, and one of whose children died of it. He also performed the operation on two brothers, whose grandfather and two uncles had laboured under the disorder. Prout speaks of a family of which the grandfather and father were affected with uric acid calculi, and who had a son, aged thirteen years, that was very much predisposed to the same disease.—ED.]
[60] Treatise on Calculous Affections: MS. translation by Dr. Colescott.
[61] [In comminuted fractures of the lower jaw, it sometimes happens, in spite of our best-directed efforts, that the ends of the fragments cannot be maintained in contact. Under these circumstances it may become necessary to tie the pieces together by means of a gold or silver wire, or to make the patient wear a thin metallic plate, adapted to the shape of the jaw, and interposed between the cheeks and dental arches; to the latter of which it should be immoveably fixed.—ED.]