The Radical Cure of Inguinal Hernia in the Male (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Radical Cure of Inguinal Hernia in the Male<br><br>From 1885 to 1889 he employed what he calls Bank's method - ligature and excision of the sac, with suture of the pillars of the external ring. Since 1889 he has practiced the sewing up of the canal after ligating and excising the sac.<br><br>Of the cases operated upon by the first method, at least 27.27 per cent. relapsed within one year; of those operated upon by the second method, at least 40 per cent. relapsed within one year; and of those operated upon by the third method, at least 42 per cent. relapsed within one year.<br><br>"My own results," writes Bull, "as to relapse being no better by the complicated method of suture of the ring alone, or of the ring and canal, than by the simpler method of excision of the sac after ligature, I shall confine myself to that method of operation till other procedures, which have stood the test of years, make a more promising showing." Bull's results became less promising the longer he observed his cases. From a series of one hundred and thirty-six cases there remained only four which had been over four years without recurrence. In his second paper Bull says: "Now that ten years have elapsed since the modern radical operations have been in vogue, we ought to hear of, or have presented to us, patients who have been more than five years, at least, without relapse. We could naturally expect to see such cases occasionally at a special hospital. But there are none such." Notwithstanding these facts, Bull does not advise that operations for the relief of hernia be discontinued, nor does he wish to discontinue efforts to discover more satisfactory methods for its cure. For, of the cases operated upon, almost all were relieved for a time, and some for several years; and of the cases which had relapsed, the majority were more comfortable than they had been before they were operated upon.<br><br>These are admirable papers, and faithfully depict what is to be expected if a hernia is operated upon by the methods which Bull has employed. To-day, therefore, the majority of surgeons operate for the radical cure of hernia only when the hernia is strangulated or cannot be retained with a truss.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.