Observations on the Caesarean section and on other obstetric operations : with an appendix of cases.

  • Radford, Thomas, 1793-1881.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the Caesarean section and on other obstetric operations : with an appendix of cases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    tination beyond a certain limit is highly hazardous to its life; and, as its preservation is an important object to attain, the long forceps should be immediately applied (if safe to the mother), if the stetho- scope indicates danger. In convulsions occurring during labour, these instruments may be of essential benefit, if they can be safely used. In cases of accidental, and also in some cases of partial, attachment of the placenta over the os uteri, this instrument has great advan- tages over other means, if the os uteri is dilated and dilatable, when the vital powers are very considerably depressed. In some cases of rupture of the uterus, in which the child does not recede, and if there is sufficient pelvic space, and if all other requisite changes exist for their safe introduction, then there may be a remote chance of saving the infant's life by their use. In cases of arrest from exhaustion, and even in fatal syncope, this instrument may be usefully employed. In some cases of face- presentations, and other unfavourable positions of the head, the application of the long forceps will be found most advantageous. The want of relative proportion between the infant's head, being abnormally large, or too firmly ossified to allow a necessary dimi- nution in its size, in order to pass into and through the pelvis, are causes of protracted labour; and, when the obstacles are so great as to oppose the head passing through the brim of the pelvis, the long forceps will be required to effect the delivery. When the pelvis is relatively too small in its general conformation, from premature defect of development, or when it partakes too much of the male conformation, or in the slight oblique-shaped pelvis of N'aegele, or when the pelvic bones have been fractured and there has been irregular union (I have a cast of a pelvis which had been fractured, and which in character now resembles the oblique of N^aegele), or when small sized exostoses or loose or fixed tumours occupy the pelvis, the long forceps may be requisite and effectual in the delivery; but, in all these cases, the practice must be determined by the available space which exists in each case. Those cases in which the value and powers of this instrument are most conspicuous are those in which the brim of the pelvis is dimi- nished in its antero-posterior diameter, either by rickets or by mol- lities ossium. In the slighter pelvic deformities produced by rickets, the brim is often considerably lessened in its conjugate diameter, whilst the