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

by Unknown

Not all the instruments in one's bag, but only those likely to be needed, are now placed in the tray or in the platters, and covered over with boiling water, to which in a few minutes is added the same quantity of a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid. The best plan would perhaps be to pour into the tray a boiling 2.5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid. Into the same tray is also laid the roll of gauze containing the threaded needles. By its side on the table, and within easy reach, is placed a small bottle filled with a 5 per cent. carbolated solution in which are kept two small spools of Nos. 1 and 2 silk. The adhesive or rubber plaster is cut into strips of appropriate length, and the antiseptic dressing put in readiness. The trocar with tubing attached is hung on a nail near by. The sponges are carefully counted and placed in one of two basins arranged side by side on a table to the left of the patient. The other basin is one-third filled with a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid, which later on is reduced by the addition of pure hot water to a strength of 2.5 per cent. On a chair is placed a bucket of clean warm water.

Let me here say, once for all, that throughout the operation the assistant who looks after the sponges attends to them in the following way: Every soiled sponge returned to him is first cleaned in the bucket of warm water, next rinsed in the carbolated solution, then squeezed out and placed in the empty basin. This sequence must be rigidly observed, because, if the soiled sponge be plunged first in the carbolated water, the blood and serum which it contains will at once coagulate in its meshes, and become liable to be dislodged in the abdominal cavity as foreign bodies.

Meantime, the woman, in another room, has been inhaling the anæsthetic—the best being, in my opinion, the ether fortior of our leading manufacturing druggists. It should be administered by Allis's inhaler, which largely dilutes it with air. Wells and Thornton employ the bichloride of methylene; Keith uses pure ether; Bantock resorts to chloroform, and Tait to a mixture of two parts of ether and one of chloroform, given by means of Clover's apparatus.⁵⁰ When the patient is wholly unconscious her water is drawn off, and she is carried into the operating-room and laid on the table. To this table she is strapped down by a belt over her thighs, and her hands are also secured to the same belt. Her legs are wrapped in warm blankets, and her clothes are drawn up out of the way. Her chest and body are then covered by the rubber sheet, but the edges of its oval opening are made to adhere to the skin from just above the navel to the pubic hair, thus exposing only a limited portion of the abdomen. After this the spray is turned on, and the 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid in the tray and in the basins is diluted with hot water down to 2.5 per cent. The operator and his assistants now take off their rings and cleanse their hands very carefully with carbolated soap and a nail-brush. They may clean and pare their nails with a penknife before the use of the nail-brush, but not after, because the knife not only does not remove all dirt, but it loosens up that which remains. Arranging themselves in their places, the operator stands to the right of the woman, his chief assistant to her left, the one who gives the ether at her head, while the other, who attends to the sponges, takes his place near the basins at the side of the chief assistant. The nurse holds herself in readiness to hand towels when called for, and especially to see that a third basin always contains warm water, so that at any stage of the operation the surgeon can wash his hands without delay.

⁵⁰ The Medical Record, Jan. 3, 1885, p. 2.

When everything is ready the door is locked, and the exposed portion of the abdomen washed with the solution of carbolic acid. An incision about three inches in length is made with a free hand, and not by nicks, in the median line below the navel, where the blood-vessels are few in number. It should end about one inch and a half above the pubes; that is to say, low enough for the pedicle to be easily reached, but high enough to avoid cutting the fold of peritoneum reflected from the bladder to the abdominal wall. The brown line running below the navel is the surface guide, but after cutting through the skin and fat one cannot always hit the linea alba beneath. When the cyst is large the recti muscles have become separated from one another, and there is no difficulty in keeping within the wide tendinous interspace. But when the cyst is small the linea alba is, as its name indicates, a mere line, and the knife will often go astray into the anterior sheath of one of the recti muscles. The red muscular fibres pouting out of the opening will be the danger-signal of one's having got off the track into more vascular regions. To recover it a probe is passed in across the muscle to the right and to the left, and the nearest point of arrest will note the linea alba. The disadvantages arising from the wandering from the linea alba are—that the sheath of the rectus muscle being cut open, or the muscle itself being wounded, there results hemorrhage; that the wound is more jagged, and therefore less easily coaptated; that suppuration in the suture-tracts is more liable to take place; and, finally, that in cases of small cysts with but little abdominal enlargement a spasmodic contraction of the wounded muscle is very likely to embarrass the operator both in removing the cyst and in introducing the sutures.

Again, one cannot on a grooved director cut canonically through the different layers of tissue described with so much precision in the textbooks. On the contrary, all that one needs is to know when the knife is approaching the peritoneum. An excellent landmark is the thin layer of fat overlying the peritoneum. So, after pinching up the abdominal wall to estimate its thickness, the surgeon can boldly cut down through the skin and its underlying fat, but somewhat cautiously through the aponeurotic structures until the second layer of fat is reached. Practically, therefore, he need regard but the following layers: skin with its underlying fat, the intermediate tendinous or muscular structures, the supra-peritoneal fat, and the peritoneum.

Before the abdominal cavity is opened all bleeding is stopped by the use of pressure-forceps, of which one dozen will sometimes dangle from the wound. When the hemorrhage has been wholly stayed, and not until then, the peritoneum is hooked up by a delicate uterine tenaculum and nicked open. On a broad grooved director or on the finger this opening is slit up for a distance of about two inches, either by a right-angled pair of scissors or by a probe-pointed bistoury. A little serum usually escapes and the nacreous wall of the cyst comes into view. This is called an exploratory incision, for by it the diagnosis is confirmed, the presence of adhesions ascertained, and the possibility of completing the operation determined. When it has been decided to go on with the operation, more working room will be needed, and the wound is therefore enlarged by the scissors, the finger being used as a guide to prevent injury to the omentum or to any chance knuckle of bowel that may lie in the way. The size of the incision will depend upon the character of the cyst and on the number of its adhesions. Hence it may range from a length of three inches to the distance from ensiform cartilage to symphysis pubis. An incision contained between the umbilicus and symphysis pubis is technically called a short incision, and one extended above the umbilicus a long incision. Should it be found needful to prolong the wound to a point above the umbilicus, the incision is usually carried to the left of the navel and brought back in a curved line to the linea alba. This is done to avoid the round ligament of the liver and its vessels, which come in there from the right side. Keith, however, cuts directly through the navel; and I find this straight incision to be superior in every respect to the curved one. Other things being equal, the short incision is safer than the long one; but it is a good rule to have an opening large enough for easy manipulation and for the easy withdrawal of the cyst. For instance, a large monocyst without adhesions after being emptied can, like a wet rag, be pulled out, hand over hand, through a very small opening, whereas a much smaller polycyst, which cannot be wholly emptied, and which is more or less adherent, will need a long incision. I once removed an oligo-cyst weighing one hundred and twelve pounds through an incision barely admitting my hand; while I had to open the abdominal cavity from ensiform cartilage to symphysis pubis in order to remove a solid ovarian fibroid tumor weighing but eighteen pounds. Both patients recovered, but the chances were, of course, more against the woman with the long incision. To avoid the escape into the abdominal cavity of any blood from the wound, and to prevent the soiling of the operator's hands, a clean napkin wetted with the carbolated water is doubled over each edge of the incision.

Whenever the cyst-wall in the line of the incision is glued by adhesions to the parietal peritoneum, the latter is liable to be mistaken for the former, and accordingly to be stripped off from the abdominal wall. To avoid this very serious error, either proceed with the cutting until the cyst-wall unmistakably comes into view or is opened, or else extend the incision upward until a point is reached where the cyst is free from adhesions. Adhesions binding the cyst to the abdominal wall are of importance only from the troublesome oozing their rupture often gives rise to. To lessen this risk, they are to be sundered by the finger whenever possible. Should the scissors be used, the adhesion bands must be snipped close to the surface of the cyst, and not to that of the abdominal wall. Thus, a free end is gained, which may, if needful, be subsequently tied or in which the dangling blood-vessels may the more readily constringe. All thick and long bands of adhesion should be tied in two places and be divided between the ligatures. These ligatures should consist either of very fine silk or of gut. For isolated vessels the latter are the better ones, but the silk is more suitable for tying en masse a group of bleeding vessels or for pursing up an oozing surface by an in-and-out stitch. A very important rule, on the observance of which one's success greatly depends, is, never to let a bleeding point or an oozing surface get out of sight. It must either be ligatured at once, or else caught by pressure-forceps and tied later if needful. If the delicate omental apron be found glued to the cyst, it should be carefully detached with as little tearing and splitting as possible, for each shred will bleed, and so will the fork of the split. It should then be turned out of the abdominal cavity on a clean napkin wetted with the carbolated solution. If its bleeding vessels be few, each one may be tied with gut; but if they are many, the torn portion of the omentum should be tied en masse or in sections, and the ligatures cut off close to the knot. All shreds and ragged ends of omentum must be trimmed off, and it is then returned to the peritoneal cavity.

When all the adhesions within reach, and those that do not demand great force, have been severed, it will be time to tap the cyst. This should be done with a large-sized trocar, such as Wells's, which is furnished with spring teeth to prevent it from slipping out of the cyst. Any trocar will do, provided it has a large bore, so that the vent may be free and that none of the acrid fluid can escape along its side into the abdominal cavity. In order to save time, neither Schroeder nor Martin use a trocar. They incise the cyst, and try by pressure and the lateral position to direct the contents externally. Frequently, however, some of the fluid escapes into the abdominal cavity, but they contend that if antiseptic precautions be taken no harm accrues.⁵¹ Although dissenting from this opinion, I must confess to having had the contents of the cyst escape repeatedly into the abdominal cavity without doing any harm whatever. Always tap at the upper angle of the wound, because as the cyst collapses the trocar is drawn downward toward the lower angle. Hence, were the trocar entered low down it could not travel with the collapsing cyst, which would therefore slip off. While the fluid is flowing flat sponges should be packed in between the abdominal wall and the cyst, and the edges of the incision should be pressed firmly against them, so that the peritoneal cavity may not receive a single drop of that which frequently escapes along the side of the trocar. To avoid this accident—which, without being a very serious one, is yet not to be invited—some ovariotomists before tapping turn the woman well over on her belly and over the edge of the table; but this is liable to cause a protrusion of the bowels; which is, in fact, a more dangerous accident than the entrance of some of the fluid into the abdomen. Rosenbach, indeed, reports that during the extraction of biliary calculi through an abdominal incision a cure resulted, although several calculi were lost in the peritoneal cavity.⁵² Should the mother-cyst not collapse on account of its containing a few other large cysts, the point of the trocar, without being withdrawn, can be made to enter each one. But if the child-cysts are many and small, the trocar is withdrawn, the opening enlarged, its edge seized by several pressure-forceps, and the hand introduced to break up these cysts.

⁵¹ Berlin. klin. Wochenschrift, 1883, No. 10.