Buzzard had a case of nervous tremor in a woman, following a fall at her fourth month of pregnancy, who at term gave birth to a male child that was idiotic. Beatty relates a curious accident to a fetus in utero. The woman was in her first confinement and was delivered of a small but healthy and strong boy. There was a small puncture in the abdominal parietes, through which the whole of the intestines protruded and were constricted. The opening was so small that he had to enlarge it with a bistoury to replace the bowel, which was dark and congested; he sutured the wound with silver wire, but the child subsequently died.
Tiffany of Baltimore has collected excellent statistics of operations during pregnancy; and Mann of Buffalo has done the same work, limiting himself to operations on the pelvic organs, where interference is supposed to have been particularly contraindicated in pregnancy. Mann, after giving his individual cases, makes the following summary and conclusions:—
(1) Pregnancy is not a general bar to operations, as has been supposed.
(2) Union of the denuded surfaces is the rule, and the cicatricial tissue, formed during the earlier months of pregnancy, is strong enough to resist the shock of labor at term.
(3) Operations on the vulva are of little danger to mother or child.
(4) Operations on the vagina are liable to cause severe hemorrhage, but otherwise are not dangerous.
(5) Venereal vegetations or warts are best treated by removal.
(6) Applications of silver nitrate or astringents may be safely made to the vagina. For such application, phenol or iodin should not be used, pure or in strong solution.
(7) Operations on the bladder or urethra are not dangerous or liable to be followed by abortion.
(8) Operations for vesicovaginal fistulae should not be done, as they are dangerous, and are liable to be followed by much hemorrhage and abortion.
(9) Plastic operations may be done in the earlier months of pregnancy with fair prospects of a safe and successful issue.
(10) Small polypi may be treated by torsion or astringents. If cut, there is likely to be a subsequent abortion.
(11) Large polypi removed toward the close of pregnancy will cause hemorrhage.
(12) Carcinoma of the cervix should be removed at once.
A few of the examples on record of operations during pregnancy of special interest, will be given below. Polaillon speaks of a double ovariotomy on a woman pregnant at three months, with the subsequent birth of a living child at term. Gordon reports five successful ovariotomies during pregnancy, in Lebedeff's clinic. Of these cases, 1 aborted on the fifth day, 2 on the fifteenth, and the other 2 continued uninterrupted. He collected 204 cases with a mortality of only 3 per cent; 22 per cent aborted, and 69.4 per cent were delivered at full term. Kreutzman reports two cases in which ovarian tumors were successfully removed from pregnant subjects without the interruption of gestation. One of these women, a secundipara, had gone two weeks over time, and had a large ovarian cyst, the pedicle of which had become twisted, the fluid in the cyst being sanguineous. May describes an ovariotomy performed during pregnancy at Tottenham Hospital. The woman, aged twenty-two, was pale, diminutive in size, and showed an enormous abdomen, which measured 50 inches in circumference at the umbilicus and 27 inches from the ensiform cartilage to the pubes. At the operation, 36 pints of brown fluid were drawn off. Delivery took place twelve hours after the operation, the mother recovering, but the child was lost. Galabin had a case of ovariotomy performed on a woman in the sixth month of pregnancy without interruption of pregnancy; Potter had a case of double ovariotomy with safe delivery at term; and Storry had a similar case. Jacobson cites a case of vaginal lithotomy in a patient six and a half months pregnant, with normal delivery at full term. Tiffany quotes Keelan's description of a woman of thirty-five, in the eighth month of pregnancy, from whom he removed a stone weighing 12½ ounces and measuring 2 by 2½ inches, with subsequent recovery and continuation of pregnancy. Rydygier mentions a case of obstruction of the intestine during the sixth month of gestation, showing symptoms of strangulation for seven days, in which he performed abdominal section. Recovery of the woman without abortion ensued. The Revue de Chirurgien 1887, contains an account of a woman who suffered internal strangulation, on whom celiotomy was performed; she recovered in twenty-five days, and did not miscarry, which shows that severe injury to the intestine with operative interference does not necessarily interrupt pregnancy. Gilmore, without inducing abortion, extirpated the kidney of a negress, aged thirty-three, for severe and constant pain. Tiffany removed the kidney of a woman of twenty-seven, five months pregnant, without interruption of this or subsequent pregnancies. The child was living. He says that Fancon cites instances of operation without abortion.
Lovort describes an enucleation of the eye in the second month of pregnancy. Pilcher cites the instance of a woman of fifty-eight, eight months in her fourth pregnancy, whose breast and axilla he removed without interruption of pregnancy. Robson, Polaillon, and Coen report similar instances.
Rein speaks of the removal of an enormous echinococcus cyst of the omentum without interruption of pregnancy. Robson reports a multi-locular cyst of the ovary with extensive adhesions of the uterus, removed at the tenth week of pregnancy and ovariotomy performed without any interruption of the ordinary course of labor. Russell cites the instance of a woman who was successfully tapped at the sixth month of pregnancy.
McLean speaks of a successful amputation during pregnancy; Napper, one of the arm; Nicod, one of the arm; Russell, an amputation through the shoulder joint for an injury during pregnancy, with delivery and recovery; and Vesey speaks of amputation for compound fracture of the arm, labor following ten hours afterward with recovery. Keen reports the successful performance of a hip-joint amputation for malignant disease of the femur during pregnancy. The patient, who was five months advanced in gestation, recovered without aborting.
Robson reports a case of strangulated hernia in the third month of pregnancy with stercoraceous vomiting. He performed herniotomy in the femoral region, and there was a safe delivery at full term. In the second month of pregnancy he also rotated an ovarian tumor causing acute symptoms and afterward performed ovariotomy without interfering with pregnancy. Mann quotes Munde in speaking of an instance of removal of elephantiasis of the vulva without interrupting pregnancy, and says that there are many cases of the removal of venereal warts without any interference with gestation. Campbell of Georgia operated inadvertently at the second and third month in two cases of vesicovaginal fistula in pregnant women. The first case showed no interruption of pregnancy, but in the second case the woman nearly died and the fistula remained unhealed. Engelmann operated on a large rectovaginal fistula in the sixth month of pregnancy without any interruption of pregnancy, which is far from the general result. Cazin and Rey both produced abortion by forcible dilatation of the anus for fissure, but Gayet used both the fingers and a speculum in a case at five months and the woman went to term. By cystotomy Reamy removed a double hair-pin from a woman pregnant six and a half months, without interruption, and according to Mann again, McClintock extracted stones from the bladder by the urethra in the fourth month of pregnancy, and Phillips did the same in the seventh month. Hendenberg and Packard report the removal of a tumor weighing 8¾ pounds from a pregnant