The great danger of operations for extra-uterine gestation after the
fifth month, when the fœtus is alive, or only recently dead, is the
furious bleeding which accompanies the detachment of the placenta. It
may be stated that an operation for tubal pregnancy after the fifth
month of gestation, with a quick placenta, is the most dangerous in the
whole range of surgery. About two-thirds of the patients die. The
greatest danger is hæmorrhage, and the other is sepsis when the placenta
has been left to slough. It cannot be urged with too much force that
when it is fairly evident that a woman has an extra-uterine gestation,
it should be dealt with by operation without delay: and my experience of
the operation leads me to believe that it is a wise plan to remove the
placenta at the primary operation. Fortunately very few extra-uterine
fœtuses survive to term.
In cornual pregnancy, or, as it is often termed, ‘pregnancy in the
rudimentary horn of a so-called unicorn uterus,’ the removal of the
uterus is often necessary; there is, however, a variety of this form of
pregnancy in which the fully developed cornu may be spared, namely, that
in which the rudimentary but gravid cornu is connected with it by a
distinct and usually solid pedicle. Many such have been observed and
very carefully described.
In nearly all varieties of tubal pregnancy the uterine tissues are
sometimes so torn that it is difficult to arrest the hæmorrhage: in
this case it is now and then a wise practice to remove the uterus.
=Concurrent intra- and extra-uterine pregnancy.= The operative treatment
of this condition requires consideration under three headings:--
1. =Tubal and uterine pregnancy coexist, but the complication is
recognized in the early stages.= In this condition the signs are those
of an early tubal rupture or abortion (Fig. 7); in the majority of the
reported cases operation has been undertaken with the impression that
the trouble was simply due to tubal pregnancy, the intra-uterine
gestation being detected, or in some cases merely inferred from the size
of the uterus, in the course of the operation.
In these circumstances the operation is carried out as for a simple
tubal pregnancy, care being taken to disturb the uterus as little as
possible. In many instances such an operation has been followed by
brilliant consequences, for the intra-uterine pregnancy has remained
undisturbed and the patients have become the happy mothers of living
children.
Occasionally the operation has been followed by miscarriage and other
untoward results, but, speaking generally, a gravid uterus is very
tolerant of interference.
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