Other small cysts I have met with which either burst under the pressure of the examining finger or were designedly burst by bimanual pressure. These, I am disposed to think, were cysts of the terminal vesicle of the oviduct. These cysts are of but little surgical importance, as they rarely need operative interference. If such should arise, they are to be treated by aspiration, and if this fails by extirpation.
Solid Tumors of the Round Ligament.
These are occasionally met with, and usually on the right side. They belong to the connective-tissue group, being either myoma, fibroma, or sarcoma. They form at any point of the round ligament, and may therefore be either intra-peritoneal, intra-canalicular—that is, in the inguinal canal—or extra-peritoneal. The symptoms are those arising from pressure, and are not at all diagnostic. The only treatment of these tumors is removal, but, as their growth is very slow, they are not to be touched unless the symptoms become exacting.14
14 Medical Times and Gazette, Dec. 1, 1883.
OVARIAN TUMORS.
The morbid growths of the ovary are conveniently divided into the solid and the cystic.
The solid ones are either benign, under the form of fibroma, or malignant, being then either carcinoma or sarcoma.
Fibroid Tumor of the Ovary.
Fibroid degeneration of the ovary is so rare a form of disease as to be denied by excellent authorities, who contend that all the cases reported under that term were pedunculated uterine fibroids, which had so grown around and so involved the corresponding ovary as to be mistaken for an ovarian fibroid. Yet while such mistakes have undoubtedly been made, there can be no question that ovarian fibroid does occasionally present itself as a rare form of disease.15 Out of 155 cases of ovariotomy thus far performed by myself, I have met with 4 undoubted cases of ovarian fibroid. The tumors weighed respectively 2, 3, 4, and 15 pounds, and in each, with the exception of the first, abdominal dropsy was the prominent symptom. All but one of these cases promptly recovered.