On a peculiar form of thrombus occurring during labour / by William F. Montgomery.

Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a peculiar form of thrombus occurring during labour / by William F. Montgomery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    perienced from it. The lady, who was not young, recovered very favourably. The second case occurred in a lady who had three or four premature children, and now for the first time, under my care, went to the full period of gestation. I was sent for at 6 o’clock, A. M., and her labour proceeded favourably during the next two hours; and at 8 o’clock 1 thought the child’s head would be expelled in a few minutes. I now observed, however, that there existed a great fulness and thickness of the perineum and external parts, especially towards the left labium, which began to swell perceptibly, and, as it swelled, assumed a dark purple or blackish colour. It gradually became enormously enlarged, and the advance of the head w'as completely prevented, until at length, a little after 9 o’clock, the swelling burst on the in- side, under the pressure of a pain, and a considerable quantity, not less than twelve ounces, of coagulated and fluid blood escaped. The pains almost immediately became effective, and the head advanced easily. The child, a girl, was born at half- past 9 o’clock, and all went on well; no hemorrhage of any consequence took place. Nothing was done except laying on a pledget of lint, wet with solution of alum, and making firm pressure with a napkin fastened to the binder. The sloughs came away on the fourth and fifth days, with- out hemorrhage; the swelling of the labium and perineum gradually disappeared, and a clean open sore, of a healthy aspect, remained, which gradually healed, and was completely well at the end of four weeks. The rupture of the vessel in this case took place in the pe- rineum, and thence the effused blood percolated through the areolar tissue into the labium. Two things particularly struck me when this occurrence took place: 1st. The immediate effect produced on the uterine con- tractions, which were at once impaired, both in frequency and power; and