The interval between the period of expulsion and the inaugural hemorrhage is often one of complete rest and health, more usually one of occasional oozing and malaise. As a consequence, we must have putrefaction and sepsis or the development of placental polypi and hemorrhage. Air is often admitted, either during the efforts at removal or later; if the cervix is not fully contracted, the secretions are more copious and liable to putrefy with the retained shreds. The symptoms are, however, unlike those of septic infection after labor at term, on account of the comparatively intact surface, the absence of the large uterine sinuses: they are insidious, not intense and acute—lack of appetite, weakness, slight increase of pulse and temperature—so that assistance may not be sought until increased suffering, putrid discharge, and high fever necessitate interference. This putrefaction is more liable to take place when the greater mass of the ovum has been expelled and parts alone remain, but will also occur when the entire mass is retained. Even without active interference the symptoms may subside as the disintegrating masses pass away as a putrid discharge, intercurrent hemorrhages at times carrying away larger shreds.
The so-called placental polypi result from the retention of parts of the ovum, especially of the placental portion, chorion, or decidua serotina, which, enveloped in fibrinous coagula, are entered by the proliferating vessels of the surrounding tissue. Such growths, sometimes of the size of a hazelnut or walnut, even to that of a small egg, may be unnoticed for months, but sooner or later give rise to oozing and hemorrhage, and in more fortunate cases are finally expelled. The expulsion of these retained membranes is inaugurated by hemorrhage, which may be preceded by more or less oozing: it is rapid in its course, accompanied by that pain which characterizes the last stage of abortion, and terminates with the appearance of the corpus delicti. It is merely the final scene of the abortion, which was but partially completed weeks or months ago, and the task is greatly simplified. Dilatation of the cervix and separation of the tissues were accomplished in the first stages, and during the interval of rest nature has been quietly making the necessary preparations to facilitate and complete the task undertaken, precisely as during the last months of gestation. Consequently, this expulsion is rapidly accomplished: pain and hemorrhage, even if severe for a time, are not of long duration. I have such a mass—which upon section reveals distinctly the villi of the chorion—which was cast off with all the symptoms of abortion four months after the occurrence of the inaugural hemorrhage and partial expulsion. More frequently I have been called to remove these masses, which have given rise to constant oozing and actual hemorrhages, two and three months after the occurrence of abortion, the adhesion to the uterine wall being so firm that the sharp scoop was called for, and sometimes I have been obliged to remove them piecemeal like a small uterine fibroid.
Late Abortion.—All abortions in the fifth and sixth month approximate in their symptoms those of labor at term; the membranes are ruptured, the ovum is never expelled in toto; the foetus may either precede the placenta or be expelled with it. It is at this period also that the hydatiform mole usually passes away, though it may be retained for a much longer period of time, even beyond the duration of normal pregnancy, the symptoms resembling those of abortion in the third or fourth month. After complete expulsion of the ovum and membranes more active hemorrhage and pain cease, the uterus contracts, but a slight oozing follows, and this becomes more pale and gradually merges into a serous flow.
DURATION.—The course of abortion varies greatly in its duration, and is usually prolonged, death of the ovum frequently occurring weeks before active symptoms are inaugurated, and even these may be slow in developing: a slight and often interrupted oozing may precede a more profuse flow and the dilatation of the cervix, or, as we have seen, the symptoms may cease for weeks and months even after they have been fully inaugurated; again, the ovum may be expelled in part and the remnants be retained for months—four months being the extent of time in which I have seen such retention terminate in expulsion without interference. By the formation of placental polypi the period may be protracted indefinitely.
The question how long abortion may be delayed, for what length of time the membranes may be retained, is far more important than is generally supposed, both from a social and medico-legal standpoint, and is by no means thoroughly understood. I have recently seen a mole formation, the infiltrated foetal membranes, and part of the decidua which had been retained nearly four years—three years and nine months.6 For four consecutive years the foolish woman, who had brought about abortion and expulsion of the embryo, suffered from occasional menorrhagia, and nausea and vomiting like that which had existed in the first months of pregnancy, until the annoyance became unbearable and medical advice was sought. An examination revealed an enlarged anteflexed uterus, from which a peculiar compressed and elongated mole was removed, after which the symptoms ceased. The case is moreover peculiar, as several of the symptoms were those of pregnancy, which do not generally continue after death of the embryo.
6 Ovum retained nearly four years, E. C. Gehrung, Weekly Medical Review, St. Louis, April 25, 1885.
For a term of three years a twin embryo has been retained, causing violent epileptiform attacks, always most severe during the menstrual period, which first appeared four weeks after the last labor and continued, to the great detriment of the patient, until the macerated embryo was removed, when recovery took place. This was most probably a twin intramural pregnancy, the twin developing in the tubo-uterine cavity being retained after the expulsion of the one properly located, and then gradually forced into the more commodious uterine cavity.7 These cases indicate the extent of this still unsettled question.
7 C. K. Patterson, Weekly Medical Review, June 13, 1885.
TERMINATION.—Dangers of Abortion.—Though fatal results are rare and, when occurring, due to sepsis rather than to hemorrhage, much of female suffering is traceable to this accident, the pathological interruption of pregnancy. Uterine and pelvic disease, especially subinvolution and consequent displacement, diseases of the endometrium and cervical tissue, result from abortion; sterility as well—all diseases which leave their traces indelibly marked upon the system of woman. They are not the direct or necessary consequences of abortion, but rather the results of the underrating of this most decidedly pathological occurrence—an underrating which is unfortunately prevalent among the profession and universal among the laity.