A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 4

by Unknown

Blistering, by means of cantharidal collodion or by the pure cantharides spread in the form of a plaster, I regard as the most efficacious counter-irritant; and if the beneficial effects of the remedy could be obtained without the discomforts, and often positive suffering, attending its action, I would probably employ it to the exclusion of all others. But these cannot be obtained. During the acute stage of the disease, when the pulse and temperature are high and the skin hot, the blister should not be used. It is then more likely to produce strangury; if not that, the other sufferings of the patient are at least increased in the pain and burning produced on the surface of the abdomen. This is not compensated for by relief of pelvic pain, for we have relieved this long since by opium. I think blistering should be confined to the chronic stage or form of the disease.

Resolution by reabsorption of the effused product may now terminate the disease; but that is not the rule when the process has once advanced beyond the first or congestive stage. If it is found that suppuration is likely to take place, that the disease is following its natural course, the third stage must be facilitated. The therapeutic plan laid down above will serve to limit the amount of pus-formation and tend to concentrate it to one point for evacuation. The hot fomentations should be continued, as well as the counter-irritation by the iodine. It will probably be observed that the patient has rigors of more or less severity, followed by rise in temperature. These symptoms should be looked upon as an indication of pus-formation. The patient should be examined from time to time by the digital touch per vaginam and by the combined vagino-hypogastric palpation for the purpose of determining the presence of an abscess and its location, so that the proper treatment may be applied and at the proper time.

These examinations must be conducted with the greatest care and gentleness, and the patient protected from undue exposure. When the disease has advanced to the third stage means for the disposition of the pus should be kept constantly in view, and the case treated as one of pelvic abscess.

Treatment of Pelvic Abscess.—Authorities differ widely as to the proper method of disposing of the contents of a pelvic abscess. Some favor a let-alone plan, believing that Nature is competent to relieve herself more effectually and better than art can do; others, equally eminent, believe that the pus should be evacuated when pointing has positively occurred and made the evacuation easy and safe; while others, again, more radical in their views, believe that much can be gained by liberating the pus as soon as it is known to exist, although it may be deep-seated and as yet have shown no tendency toward pointing.

The same therapeutic principle should guide us in the management of a pelvic abscess that we would unhesitatingly apply in the treatment of an abscess in any other portion of the body. It is a settled law in surgery that if a pus-cavity is evacuated and not allowed to burrow, much tissue may be saved, the duration of the disease shortened, and the prognosis rendered more favorable. I believe that the pus should be liberated promptly as soon as it is certain that an abscess has been formed and can be reached without danger to important structures—emphatically so when the way is being pointed out. True, Nature is competent in some instances to discharge the accumulation, and usually by the least dangerous channel. But it is also true that in many other cases she is not. Instead of taking the shortest, most direct, and safest course to the surface, the pus frequently takes the most indirect route, riddling and destroying the tissues in its track; or it may rupture into the bladder or peritoneal cavity, in the latter case to be followed by death from peritonitis. Evacuation of the pus by artificial means when the way has been shown, if done carefully by aspiration, is attended with almost no danger. Where, on the other hand, the abscess is deeply seated and there is no tendency toward pointing, the question of evacuation becomes one requiring great deliberation; for the dangers of puncture increase as the thickness of the tissues to be traversed in reaching the abscess is greater. But, even though the pus be deeply located, when a positive diagnosis of its presence can be made I still favor early evacuation. Mere exploratory puncture in the hope of finding pus is a most dangerous practice, and should not be thought of in connection with pelvic abscess. Delay, even at the risk of spontaneous rupture, is the proper course until the diagnosis can be rendered positive; for when the abscess is deep-seated the progress of the disease is often slow. Of course the condition of the patient should always be taken into account in deciding the question whether or not to interfere. If signs of septic absorption appear, or evidences of constitutional failure become prominent in spite of the means used for staying the progress of the disease, prompt measures must be taken to get rid of the product of the inflammation. The strongest argument in favor of early operative evacuation of the abscess is the danger that the disease may become chronic when the pus is not promptly discharged. Many cases have occurred in which abscess after abscess had been formed and discharged, until the patient became a mere wreck of her former self, and finally died from septicæmia or exhaustion. This is the result of non-interference. I am so fully convinced of the value and necessity of operative measures in the treatment of pelvic abscess that the following questions at once present themselves to me when called upon to decide in a case where spontaneous evacuation has not already taken place: 1st. When shall the abscess be opened? 2d. Where shall the opening be made? and 3d. How shall the operation be done?

The first of these questions has been answered in a general way by the preceding remarks, and it is only necessary to add here, by way of recapitulation, that the time for opening the abscess will depend upon its location and the condition of the patient. If the pus is near the surface and can be easily and safely reached, whether pointing has occurred or not, it is ripe for evacuation and should be liberated at once, even though the patient be in the best possible condition and show no evidence of deleterious effect from its presence. Nothing whatever can be gained by permitting it to open spontaneously, but much may be lost. If, however, the situation of the abscess be such that it would be necessary to traverse healthy tissues to a considerable extent in order to reach it, and the patient shows no evidence of septic absorption, it would be highly injudicious to attempt to open the abscess: first, because under the circumstances you could not be positively certain that a collection of pus existed; and, secondly, because it is doing no harm. Delay, with careful observation, is now the proper course. Within a few days the apparent abscess tumor may either show decided signs that it is diminishing in size and undergoing resolution, or it may approach the surface, so that evacuation will become safe. On the other hand, should symptoms of blood-poisoning develop and the patient show signs of rapid exhaustion, our attitude must be one of action instead of delay. The pus must then be liberated even at some risk. I still insist, however, that a positive diagnosis must be established, and that the operative measure shall be in no sense exploratory.

2d. Where shall the opening be made? This question is often decided for us by Nature. The puncture, as a rule, should be made where pointing has occurred. If pointing has not occurred, a position from which the abscess can be most easily reached through the vagina or abdominal wall should be selected. The vagina should be given the preference, because the opening would then be at the most dependent portion. The rectum should not be selected as the channel through which to evacuate the pus artificially, although spontaneous discharge into that tube occurs almost as frequently as into the vagina. The patient does not recover as quickly, however, when the abscess opens into the rectum, and more cases of septic poisoning occur from decomposition of the pus as a result of the entrance of air and fecal matter into the abscess-cavity. Further, it may become necessary to keep the opening patulous and to wash out the cavity of the abscess. This could not be done properly if the opening were in the rectum. I believe it to be the best practice to open from the vagina rather than from the rectum, even at greater risk to intervening structures, because it may greatly facilitate the after-management of the case.

If the tumor should be located high up in the iliac fossa or in the hypogastrium, the point of election for opening must be somewhere on the abdominal surface in the region of the abscess.

3d. How shall the operation be done? The opening of a pelvic abscess should never be regarded as a simple operation. As much care and deliberation should be taken in the selection of the proper method of evacuation of the pus, and in the operation itself, as was previously given to the diagnosis of its presence. Always begin with the administration of an anæsthetic. This not only protects the patient from unnecessary mental agitation and physical pain, but it better enables the physician to confirm his previous opinion of the case, as well as to be more deliberate in the election of the point of puncture. With the patient in the dorsal position, if it be determined that the pus is contained in a single cavity, and there be no evidence of its decomposition, shown by the absence of symptoms of systemic poisoning, it should be liberated by aspiration. By this means a smaller puncture will be required and the entrance of atmospheric air prevented. If, happily, the operation has been performed early, before the formation of the so-called pyogenic membrane, or at least before sinuous tracts have resulted from burrowing, the abscess-cavity may then collapse and disappear. But should the patient not improve after the pus has been removed, or should the cavity again fill up, it is probable either that there is another pus-cavity, which had not been reached by the trocar, or that there has been developed on the internal surface of the sac an unhealthy fungous, granular condition. Under these circumstances a free incision should be made into the cavity of the abscess, so that a drainage-tube may be introduced and the cavity washed out by an antiseptic fluid. The opening should then be kept patulous, so that healing can take place from the bottom of the sac. It may become necessary to introduce a finger and scrape away with the nail the fungosites from the wall of the sac. But great care must be used in this manipulation, as well as in making the incision, for there is danger of wounding large blood-vessels and of rupturing the wall of the sac. If the cavity be now kept pure by daily injections of a 1:1000 solution of the bichloride of mercury or of a 2½-5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid, its surface may become healthy, the secretion diminish, and the sac close up.