From a careful study of the matter I have come to the conclusion that
acute intestinal obstruction is more frequent after ovariotomy than
after hysterectomy, and this is due to the fact that the stump or
pedicle left after the removal of an ovarian tumour lies higher in the
pelvis, and in closer relation to ileum and jejunum, than the cervical
stump left after the removal of the uterus. This view also receives
support from the fact that acute intestinal obstruction following
hysterectomy is more frequent in the practice of those surgeons who
perform subtotal hysterectomy improperly, and leave a large piece of the
neck of the uterus sticking up like a median post in the floor of the
pelvis. As far as I can judge from the scanty records relating to this
complication after hysterectomy, it is the sigmoid flexure of the colon
which is most commonly adherent to the cervical stump. The best way of
avoiding this accident is to remove the supravaginal cervix so freely
that, when the peritoneum is closed over the incision in the floor of
the pelvis, there is nothing visible except a narrow thin line of suture
at the base of the bladder.
The only rational method of treating acute intestinal obstruction
following operations in the pelvis, is to promptly reopen the abdomen
and set free the adherent coil of gut. Operations of this kind after
hysterectomy are more often successful than when they are a sequel to
ovariotomy, and this is, I think, due to the fact already mentioned,
that when intestinal obstruction follows ovariotomy or oöphorectomy, the
obstruction arises in the small intestine and is usually very acute and
more dangerous; whereas after hysterectomy the obstruction affects, as a
rule, the sigmoid flexure of the colon, and though it may be fairly
acute, is not nearly so dangerous, and gives far better results to
operative treatment.
=Perforating ulcer of the stomach and small intestine.= A rare cause of
death after ovariotomy or hysterectomy is a perforating ulcer of the
stomach or jejunum. Since 1887 I have seen three cases. In each instance
the patient died from septic peritonitis. Rosthorn lost a patient from
perforating ulcer of the stomach after hysterectomy. Olshausen states
that he has seen at least four examples of this accident.[2]
[2] Bland-Sutton, J. On Perforation of the Stomach and Small Intestine
as a Sequel to Ovariotomy and Hysterectomy. _Journ. of Obstet. and Gyn.
of the British Empire_, 1909, xv.
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