The cavity created by the removal of the uterus is filled in loosely with iodoform gauze, which extends to the vulva. An exact closing of the peritoneal cavity over this gauze is effected by the sewing up of the anterior and posterior flaps of peritoneum. The final step is the closure of the abdominal incision. =After-treatment.= This is relatively simple. The strips of iodoform gauze are removed through the vagina in from five to ten days successively. The patient gets up on the fifteenth day. The bladder requires very careful attention, as it is usually paralysed for some days. =Mortality.= The immediate mortality of these extensive abdominal operations for cancer of the neck of the uterus is very high, more than 20%, but recent statistics (1909) show that this death-rate is being considerably improved with increased experience on the part of the operators.[1] [1] Comyns Berkeley and Bonney have published the best immediate results of this operation which have been obtained in England. _British Medical Journal_, 1908, ii. 961, and _Lancet_, 1909, i. 320. =Dangers.= The chief risks of the operation are sepsis, cancer-infection, and injury to the ureters. The ureters have proved a fertile source of trouble because they are deliberately exposed in the course of the operation, and they are sometimes accidentally divided. It is not uncommon to find a ureter completely blocked by cancer, and occasionally the ureter, after being bared by the operator, undergoes necrosis a few days later. Wertheim points out that in some instances ureteral fistulæ due to necrosis may be induced to close by the application of iodine or sulphate of copper. It is, however, unfortunately true that many patients with ureteral fistulæ after the radical operation have been obliged to undergo nephrectomy (see p. 112). The ‘radical operation’ for cancer of the neck of the uterus is on its trial in Great Britain. The operative mortality is very high, and no reliable returns concerning the remote results are at present available. =Hysterectomy for cancer of the body of the uterus.= The most satisfactory method of dealing with cancer arising in the corporeal endometrium consists in performing total abdominal hysterectomy (see p. 40), removing not only the uterus and its neck, but both ovaries, Fallopian tubes, mesometria, and any enlarged lymph glands that are detected. In the course of the operation the surgeon should avoid any undue handling of the uterus, and, in withdrawing it from the pelvis, care should be taken not to infect the operation area with any fluid or semi-fluid stuff which is liable to escape from the cervical canal. [Illustration: FIG. 19. CANCER OF THE UTERUS. Coronal section through a uterus affected with primary cancer of the corporeal endometrium. The mass measured 10 centimetres transversely and 12 centimetres vertically. Removed by abdominal hysterectomy. Two-thirds size.]