THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS IN VAGINAL HYSTERECTOMY.Read in the Section of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, at the Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association.

Abstract

The experience of gynecologists is gradually establishing the fact that the removal of the uterus through the vagina is not in itself a very dangerous operation. Of course there is a mortality connected with all operations involving any considerable amount of cutting, but there is nothing about the one under consideration involving any special, unavoidable danger. What there is comes not so much from the' danger of the operation as from certain avoidable circumstances which may be considered under three heads, viz: 1. Unsuitable cases for operations; 2. Imperfection in the technique; 3. Mistakes in the after-treatment. It would be absurd to maintain that unfavorable circumstances can always be avoided in practice, yet there is much to be accomplished in that direction, and a great majority of the deaths due to the operation ought not to occur. 1. Unsuitable Cases for Operation .—Unfortunately, the great majority of cases are unsuitable ones—