The Medical News, Vol. 66: A Weekly Medical Journal, January-June, 1895 (Classic Reprint)
Book Details
Author(s)Gould, George M.
PublisherForgotten Books
ISBN / ASIN133026522X
ISBN-139781330265222
MarketplaceIndia 🇮🇳
Description
Excerpt from The Medical News, Vol. 66: A Weekly Medical Journal, January-June, 1895
The symptoms of appendicitis are (1) a sudden pain in the abdomen; (2) shortly followed by nausea and, perhaps, vomiting; (3) local tenderness over the site of the appendix, and most frequently in the right iliac region; (4) elevation of temperature. These symptoms, occurring in this order, without a previous history of genito-urinary infection, or of a lesion of the gall-tracts, or Pott's disease, indicate with almost uniform regularity appendicitis. They do not indicate that the appendix is gangrenous, or that there is a simple catarrhal appendicitis. They do not indicate whether it has perforated or has not perforated; nor whether the cause is an infection with the staphylococcus, the streptococcus, or the bacillus coli commune, or the presence of a fecal stone, or of a foreign body. They do not indicate whether it is a stenosis of the appendix or an appendicitis obliterans, but merely that it is an appendicitis or acute disease of the appendix.
The physical manifestations, the presence or absence of induration, tumefaction, edema of the wall, tympanites, etc., aid in the differentiation of the various pathologic conditions present in the more advanced stage; but all of these are absent or comparatively worthless in the early stage.
The etiology, which was for a long time a subject of contention, is now practically agreed upon. It was very difficult to eradicate from the professional mind the deep-rooted erroneous belief that in a great majority of cases appendicitis was due to foreign bodies admitted into and retained in the appendix, as grape-seeds, cherry-stones, fragments of bone. Only 2 percent, are cases with foreign bodies, and fecal stone in 38 percent. To indicate the causes of appendicitis I will use the same classification employed in ray article of March 3, 1893:
1. Simple pus-infection, producing the catarrhal variety.
2. Extensive…
The symptoms of appendicitis are (1) a sudden pain in the abdomen; (2) shortly followed by nausea and, perhaps, vomiting; (3) local tenderness over the site of the appendix, and most frequently in the right iliac region; (4) elevation of temperature. These symptoms, occurring in this order, without a previous history of genito-urinary infection, or of a lesion of the gall-tracts, or Pott's disease, indicate with almost uniform regularity appendicitis. They do not indicate that the appendix is gangrenous, or that there is a simple catarrhal appendicitis. They do not indicate whether it has perforated or has not perforated; nor whether the cause is an infection with the staphylococcus, the streptococcus, or the bacillus coli commune, or the presence of a fecal stone, or of a foreign body. They do not indicate whether it is a stenosis of the appendix or an appendicitis obliterans, but merely that it is an appendicitis or acute disease of the appendix.
The physical manifestations, the presence or absence of induration, tumefaction, edema of the wall, tympanites, etc., aid in the differentiation of the various pathologic conditions present in the more advanced stage; but all of these are absent or comparatively worthless in the early stage.
The etiology, which was for a long time a subject of contention, is now practically agreed upon. It was very difficult to eradicate from the professional mind the deep-rooted erroneous belief that in a great majority of cases appendicitis was due to foreign bodies admitted into and retained in the appendix, as grape-seeds, cherry-stones, fragments of bone. Only 2 percent, are cases with foreign bodies, and fecal stone in 38 percent. To indicate the causes of appendicitis I will use the same classification employed in ray article of March 3, 1893:
1. Simple pus-infection, producing the catarrhal variety.
2. Extensive…
