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

by Unknown

Strict attention should be paid to the diet. The food should be of the most nutritious character, calculated to improve the digestive organs, and through them to build up the general system.

The Local Treatment.—The local treatment should embrace those remedies which are thought to possess the power of producing absorption of plastic material, either by a counter-irritant or stimulating action. The persistent use of the tincture of iodine, both to the hypogastrium and to the fundus of the vagina opposite the seat of exudation, is of great value. Where the iodine is found to be so irritating to the skin as to make it necessary to discontinue its use, and also for the relief of pain, I have found the following formula very useful:

Rx.	Tincturæ aconiti, Tincturæ opii, aa.	drachm j;
	Tincturæ iodinii,	drachm vj. Misce.

Sig. Poison. To be applied externally as directed.

This may also be applied to the fundus of the vagina instead of the iodine alone, either by a camel's-hair brush or by the cotton-wrapped uterine applicator. The vaginal application of iodine should be made not oftener than once in three days, and sometimes a longer interval is advisable, especially if the remedy is used in a concentrated form. If it is found that irritation or ulceration has been produced, its use must be discontinued for a time, and remedies of a milder form substituted, as, for instance, the application of iodoform and glycerin (one drachm to the ounce), or of glycerin alone on the cotton tamponade.

In the intervals between the application of iodine and the other remedies the hot-water douche should be used daily. When the hot water is administered the patient must be in the recumbent position. I am opposed to indiscriminately advising walking patients to use hot water, because, as a rule, it is not given as intended—that is, hot and in large quantity—and the object for which it has been recommended is not attained. The water is either used at too low a temperature or in too small a quantity, or both. When administered by the patient herself she becomes tired of the pumping and of the position which she must assume, and fails to keep it up during the length of time required for the injection of the quantity of water usually advised—that is, a gallon or two—and the constrained squatting position is of itself injurious. I believe that the long-continued use of hot water is followed by relaxation of the pelvic organs, and this would constitute another objection to the indiscriminate recommendation of this measure, for when it is placed in the patient's hands she is apt to continue its use for too long a period. The remedy is no doubt most efficacious in the treatment of these chronic cases of pelvic peritonitis, and great credit is due Emmet for introducing it to the profession. It should, however, be administered in accordance with fixed rules and under certain restrictions, and these I would class as follows: 1, the patient must always be in the recumbent posture; 2, she must not administer the injection herself; 3, the water should be at a certain temperature, which is best determined by the sensations of the patient. It should be used as hot as can be easily borne, and the temperature gradually increased during the administration of the injection, for the patient will be able to bear it at a higher temperature after the current has been flowing a few minutes than when the application is first made. I believe that the douche is better than pumping, as by Davidson's syringe, because the application is more likely to be thorough and the effect to be maintained longer, for even when the injection is given by the physician or nurse the hand is apt to become tired and the application stopped, for a time at least. It is the continuous application of the remedy which is beneficial. In other words, the organs should be kept as it were in a hot bath. For use in my private hospital I have had constructed a tripod five feet high, with a hook in the centre on which a bucket is easily hung. This bucket holds two gallons of water, and near the bottom is placed a stopcock, to which is attached a tube provided with a nozzle and stopcock at its distal end. The patient is placed on a bed-pan, which is modified after that devised by Meriman. The nozzle is then introduced into the vagina, and the stopcock at the bucket turned by the nurse, the water being at a temperature of at least 110°. The patient can then regulate the flow herself. The water is allowed to enter the vagina, dilating it and flowing off slowly, so that the tissues are in a continuous hot bath, which may be kept up as long as desired—from ten minutes to an hour—care being taken to see that the proper temperature of the water is maintained by the addition of a fresh supply from time to time. The important point is not so much the amount of water as its temperature and constant contact. If the vagina could once be filled to distension and the temperature kept up, it would not be necessary to renew the water, but to keep up the temperature a regular flow of hot water must be provided for. The rapidity of the flow may be regulated by the stopcock. The application of this remedy should be made once or twice a day, depending on its effect upon the patient.

After all tenderness has subsided much may be accomplished by gentle massage of the pelvic organs. This is best carried out by the introduction of one or two fingers of the left hand into the vagina, while the right hand is placed upon the hypogastrium; then the contracted ligaments, thickened membranes, and fixed uterus, ovaries, and tubes should be gently manipulated and moved from side to side or upward and downward, care being taken that the force used is not sufficient to lacerate adhesions or even to so stretch them as to cause their irritation. The proper amount of force is best regulated by the sensation of the patient, and if pain is produced by the manipulation it should not be persisted in. This massage may at first be employed at intervals of two or three days, but later it may for a time be used almost daily, and it will almost invariably be found that the organs gradually become more mobile—that the adhesions become attenuated, and in many cases finally absorbed. On the other hand, adhesions of such size and strength may exist that many months may be required to produce any marked effect, and in some cases the adhesions may be of such a character as to be permanently organized and almost incurably fixed.

I have also found the stretching of the fundus of the vagina by firmly packing it with absorbent cotton, sometimes repeated almost daily or at intervals of two, three, or four days, of great benefit in stretching the adhesions and promoting their absorption. Sometimes, where adhesions are persistent, the use of the rubber colpeurynter distended with hot water is of value.

Where there is a foreign body, as a tumor, fixed posteriorly to the uterus, or where the uterus is fixed in a retroflexed position, the patient may be placed in the knee-chest position, Sims's speculum introduced, and the vagina packed with cotton while the patient is in that posture; or, instead, the vagina may be simply distended with air. The air may be admitted by the introduction of Campbell's glass tube or by the separation of the walls of the vagina with the fingers, which may be done by the patient herself. These measures are often of decided benefit.