Domestic Medicine Research Articles

BOOK REVIEW: Janis McLarren Caldwell.LITERATURE AND MEDICINE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN: FROM MARY SHELLEY TO GEORGE ELIOT. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Reviewed by: Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: From Mary Shelley to George Eliot Miriam Bailin (bio) Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: From Mary Shelley to George Eliot, by Janis McLarren Caldwell; pp. xi + 201. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004, £45.00, $75.00. The title of Janis McLarren Caldwell's book, with its promise of both categorial and temporal comprehensiveness, is misleading given its tightly focused argument and the specificity of its areas of interest. There is medicine here, and literature, too, but Caldwell's governing interest is in a particular interpretive methodology that she finds in works written in what she calls the pre-Darwinian era. Proceeding from the premise that clinical medicine and Romanticism emerged from the same cultural milieu, she adopts Gillian Beer's term "romantic materialism" to refer to a method that linked these emergent cultural phenomena and to construct a cohort of literary and scientific writers who were able to move back and forth productively between material evidence and imaginative understanding. Caldwell contends that romantic materialists were able to tolerate the tension between opposed modes of cognition and to find them useful as sources of knowledge and ethical understanding. These writers, she argues, read the world through a "two-text" approach, through the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture, in a way that diminishes the integrity of neither as distinct conceptual perspectives. Caldwell seeks to revise the view that nineteenth-century attempts to accommodate the practices of the scientific method with tenets of religious faith or Romantic idealism were poignant or wrongheaded last-ditch efforts; she asserts instead that they constituted vigorous and productive encounters between different but not self-cancelling discourses. She enlists hermeneutic theory for its model of a dual way of reading that takes into account an imagined whole and the parts that make it up; it also defers closure of ultimate questions, [End Page 360] moving between logical and intuitive, psychological and linguistic formulations, as well as between reader and writer. The individual chapters address literary, philosophical, and scientific texts, demonstrating how each exemplifies a different performance of "bi-textual" interpretative strategies. The first chapter, on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), argues that Shelley offers a new definition of sympathy as the reception of difference rather than sameness or identification. The disjunction between the monster's body and mind poses a problem for his sympathizing listeners—a problem that stages in a particularly graphic way the philosophical contention between materialist and transcendentalist philosophies. According to Caldwell, Shelley holds those views in tension and models a kind of listening that brackets perception of the material body in order to "hear" what can't be physically validated. The chapter on Sartor Resartus (1836) compares Thomas Carlyle's natural supernaturalism to Richard Owen's transcendental anatomy and argues that to these thinkers the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture are not disjunctive; rather, they can be viewed differently according to two opposed ways of knowing that are in perpetual dialectical engagement with each other. In Wuthering Heights (1847), this dialectic moves between Emily Brontë's dual investments in the natural child and the world of books; the suspension between these two domains—one physical, one imaginative— provides an explanatory framework for the famous bifurcation of that novel. Caldwell pursues her thesis about dual ways of knowing in subsequent chapters on Charlotte Brontë's Villette (1853), Charles Darwin's Autobiography (1929), and the four encounters between Dorothea Brooke and Lydgate in Middlemarch (1871–72). Caldwell's argument about these works is carefully and generatively situated in relation to other texts and contexts, including domestic medicine, physiological theories of sympathy, and biblical typology. Caldwell's key objective seems to be to present an ethical mode of medical and scientific inquiry that, by emphasizing "bi-textual reading," keeps the door open for non-empiricist and more humane modes of understanding. The book moves toward advocacy. It is clear that Caldwell, a former emergency room doctor, heartily approves of hermeneutic approaches that combine a rigorous empirical approach to understanding the physical world and an openness to spiritual, imaginative, and intuitive sources of knowledge. The book ends by...

Janis McLaren Caldwell. Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: From Mary Shelley to George Eliot. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004. xi, 201 pp. $75.

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Romantic materialism 2. Science and sympathy in Frankenstein 3. Natural supernaturalism in Thomas Carlyle and Richard Owen 4. Wuthering Heights and domestic medicine: the child's body and the book 5. Literalization in the novels of Charlotte Bronte 6. Charles Darwin and Romantic medicine 7. Middlemarch and the medical case report: the patient's narrative and the physical exam Notes Bibliography Index.

Literature and medicine in nineteenth-century Britain: from Mary Shelley to George Eliot

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Romantic materialism 2. Science and sympathy in Frankenstein 3. Natural supernaturalism in Thomas Carlyle and Richard Owen 4. Wuthering Heights and domestic medicine: the child's body and the book 5. Literalization in the novels of Charlotte Bronte 6. Charles Darwin and Romantic medicine 7. Middlemarch and the medical case report: the patient's narrative and the physical exam Notes Bibliography Index.

India’s Tryst With Trips: The Patents (Amendment) Act

The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 introduces pharmaceutical product patents in India for the first time. This Act attempts to balance out competing interests of a variety of stakeholders, including domestic generic medicine producers, foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies and civil society groups concerned with access to medicines. Although this dexterous manoeuvring around competing interests deserves praise, the net result of such a compromise has been a lack of clarity in the law. While highlighting the key aspects of the 2005 amendments and this lack of clarity, this article also focuses on the vexed issue of the likely impact of the new regime on access to medicines. It notes that the provisions as they stand now could be interpreted in a manner that would leave considerable scope for the continued production of some generics. Whether these provisions would be so interpreted remains to be seen.

Book Notes

David L. Cowen. Pharmacopoeias and Related Literature in Britain and America, 1618-1847. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate Variorum, 2001. ix + 296 pp. Ill. $105.95 (0-86078-842-3). "Medical discoveries, medical theories, and medical systems most certainly have their place in medical history," writes David Cowen in the preface to this collection, "but these studies make it evident that the materia medica and pharmacotherapy were what the practice of medicine was all about" (p. vii). The collection includes the following publications: "The Edinburgh Pharmacopeia" (reprinted from Med. Hist., 1957); "The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia," (reprinted from The Early Years of the Edinburgh Medical School, ed. R. G. W. Anderson and A. D. C. Simpson, 1976); "Expunctum est Mithridatium" (reprinted from Pharmaceut. Historian, 1985); "The Edinburgh Dispensatories" (reprinted from Pap. Amer. Bibliog. Soc., 1951); "The Influence of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia and the Edinburgh Dispensatories" (reprinted from Pharmaceut. Historian, 1982); "A Note on Pharmaceutical Literature and the Introduction of the New Chemical Nomenclature" (reprinted from Beiträge zur Geschichte der Pharmazie, 1981); "The Spread and Influence of British Pharmacopoeial and Related Literature" (reprinted from Veröffentlichungen der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Pharmazie, 1974); "America's Pre-Pharmacopoeial Literature" (reprinted from Amer. Inst. Hist. Pharm., 1961); "The Boston Editions of Nicholas Culpeper" (reprinted from J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci., 1956); "'Zum Dienst des gemeinen Mannes, insonderheit für die Landleute': The Domestic and Veterinary Medicine Books Printed in Colonial North America and the United States in the German Language" (from Orbis Pictus: Kultur- und pharmaziehistorische Studien, 1985); "Deigendesch's Nachrichters Rossartznebüchlein" (reprinted from J. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc., 1981); "The Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Dutch" (reprinted from Folk Lore and Folk Medicine, ed. John Scarborough, 1987); and "The New York Hospital and Its Pharmacopoeia" (reprinted from New York State J. Med., 1973). The Editors Christine Hillam, ed. Dental Practice in Europe at the End of the Eighteenth Century. ClioMedica, vol. 72. Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 2003. 518 pp. Ill. $150.00, €135.00 (cloth, 90-420-1268-4); $61.00, €55.00 (paperbound, 90-420-1258-7). This collection of essays emerged from conferences held in Germany, England, and Paris from 1992 to 1993. Contributors and their subjects or essay titles are as follows: Pierre Baron, dental practitioners in France; Anne Hargreaves, "Dentistry in the British Isles"; Frank Huisman, "Itinerant Dentists and Patent Remedies [End Page 930] in the Dutch Republic"; Judit Fornai, dental practice in Hungary; Thomas Nickol and Curt Gerhard Lorber, "Germany between 1780 and 1810"; Thomas Nickol, "German Dental Literature around 1800" and "The Availability of Dental Care in Halle: A Local Study"; and Peter Schröck-Schmidt and Curt Gerhard Lorber, biographical sketches of German dental practitioners. Six appendices contain detailed information about individuals offering dental treatment in France, Britain, and Germany, along with French sources of information and an alphabetic list of German dental literature published between 1775 and 1820. The Editors Jennifer K. Walter and Eran P. Klein, eds. The Story of Bioethics: From Seminal Works to Contemporary Explorations. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2003. xv + 248 pp. $29.95, £21.50 (paperbound, 0-87840-138-5). Recent interest in bioethics as a field has come from two directions, write the editors in their preface: a historical interest in its origins, and an interest in its purpose and potential. The essays in this book, which the editors identify as seminal, "are premised on the notion that these two threads are interwoven . . . ." (p. ix). Part 1, "Theories in Bioethics," comprises "From Medical Ethics to a Moral Philosophy of the Professions," by Edmund D. Pellegrino; "The Origins, Goals, and Core Commitments of The Belmont Report and Principles of Biomedical Ethics," by Tom L. Beauchamp; "Principles of Biomedical Ethics: Reflections on a Work in Progress," by James F. Childress; "Revisiting A Theory of Medical Ethics: Main Themes and Anticipated Changes," by Robert M. Veatch; and "The Foundations of Bioethics: Rethinking the...

Headache among the educated in the century of enlightment

Owing to B. Ramazzini’s De morbis artificum diatriba, the 1700s may be considered as the century when occupational medicine was born. This paper considers Ramazzini’s treatise and some publications of the same century dealing with headaches as an occupational ailment of educated persons. Besides De morbis artificum diatriba, we also analyse De valetudine litteratorum by S.A. Tissot, Domestic medicine by W. Buchan, Della preservazione della salute de’ letterati e della gente applicata e sedentaria by G. A. Pujati and the Dizionario compendioso di sanità. In these works, headache is considered a typical illness of educated people, defined in a wide sense, close to the modern term “intellectual”. Head pain was regarded as the consequence of either a plethora of blood in the brain or tension in the head caused by mental concentration. No specific pharmacological therapy was suggested; instead, prophylactic measures were recommended, such as periodic interruptions of study, working areas that were well-ventilated and brightly lit, use of olive oil-burning lanterns and wax candles for evening study, abolition of toxic substances such as tobacco and alcoholic beverages, avoidance of the lying position while studying, and moderate consumption of legumes. Our investigation shows the attention given, in the century of the Enlightment, to headache caused by the professions requiring mental activity.

On the 150th birthday of Paul Julius Möbius (1853-1907)

In memory of Paul Julius Möbius (1853-1907) on the occasion of his 150th birthday Among his profession Leipzig neurologist and psychiatrist Paul Julius Möbius made a name for himself by clinical studies on singular neurological topics. Several of these contributions have been acknowledged until today by giving his name to these symptoms or illnesses (cf. 'Möbius sign', 'Möbius syndrome', 'Möbius disease'). It was also him who divided nervous illnesses into endogenous and exogenous ones. Furthermore, Möbius made significant contributions towards the understanding of the causes for some mental illnesses, e.g. it was him who postulated a psychogenic development of hysteria. Through his pathographies as well as his work as a major reviewer and editor of 'Schmidt's Annals of Domestic and Foreign Entire Medicine' Möbius became known to a greater public. Even more well-known, if not infamous, Möbius's name is for his pamphlet on 'The Physiological Mental Weakness of Woman'. As a result of it's repeated republication he was accused to be hating women and his major contributions towards the progress of the neurosciences have been neglected.

Determining the Content of Sulfohydryl Groups in Bee Brood Proteins

Unfortunately, bee brood – a nontraditional product of beekeeping – is still not used in domestic medicine because of insufficiently studied chemical composition and pharmacological activity. Comprising a mixture of bee queen, worker, and drone larvae, prepupas, and pupas, bee brood contains a complex of biologically active substances including amino acids, proteins, lipids, and mineral compounds [1 – 3]. Of special significance among these components are proteins offering a valuable source of both essential and nonessential amino acids. As is known, sulfohydryl groups enter into the composition of essential amino acids cysteine and cystine. It was established that the activity of bee brood enzymes involved in the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids and in the synthesis and decomposition of ATP is also determined primarily by the presence of sulfohydryl groups in the active centers of enzyme molecules. In this context, we have developed a spectrophotometric technique and studied the content of sulfohydryl groups in the proteins of bee brood from several bee species. These species represented several types (gray Caucasus mountain, Italian, middle-Russian, and Carpathian) collected in Stavropol, Krasnodar, Rostov, and Irkutsk regions. We have also studied the reference samples of bee milk.

Alternative care options for pregnancy in Jalisco, Mexico

The mother's culture has been identified as a factor in the use of health services for prenatal care. Beliefs and practices concerning traditional and domestic medicine used by women during pregnancy can play a role in the decision to seek medical care. In a non-probabilistic sample of 3,250 women, alternative care during pregnancy and its relationship to satisfactory prenatal care was studied. To analyze the association, the prenatal care variable was divided into (a) satisfactory and (b) unsatisfactory, according to a list of official Mexican standards. The chi-square test and odds ratio were applied, with p < 0.05. The association of alternative care with unsatisfactory prenatal care was established. Psycho-prophylactic training for delivery acted as a protective factor. The culture of pregnant woman in Mexico comprises meaning and behaviors that mix concepts and prescriptive ideas concerning domestic, traditional, and academic medicine, varying according to the stage of pregnancy, and which may be used in exclusive or complementary fashion. This situation should be considered in health education programs.

Traditions of classic domestic medicine in the works of Tomsk medical scientists and philosophers

In the article there were discussed clinical and philosophical problems of general diagnostics theory — a fundamental discipline in clinical sciences study and doctor’s thinking. As a basic knowledge there were discussed the works of the biggest domestic physicians and philosophers whose world outlook positions have been united by dialectic problem of medicine study and, despite the test of time, have kept their actuality. Investigations of Tomsk scientists, the leading specialists in methodology and strategy of clinical diagnosis ascertainment, were underlined.

То history of organization of obstetrics assistance in the Russian Army

Until now, it was believed that the first experience of using female labor in military medicine dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. a detachment of sisters of mercy under the leadership of N. I. Pirogov worked in the theater of military operations. However, some documents indicate that in peacetime, female personnel in domestic military medicine began to be used much earlier.

The History of Grandmothers in the African‐American Community

This article examines the role of grandmothers in the African‐American community from Reconstruction through the New Deal. It suggests that grandmothers were central to the economic survival of their families and worked as long as they lived, in paid labor and household labor, to help provide for their families. Grandmothers had many roles in their communities: they were midwives, purveyors of domestic medicine, and caretakers of children. Grandmothers were the source of oral histories and narratives that helped their grandchildren resist the oppression of the larger society. This early role is linked to the role of grandmothers since World War II.

Historical milestones in the development of the Kazan neurological school

The oldest Russian centers of progressive thought greatly influenced the scientific and social life of Russia and European countries. For a long time, the leading centers of Russian neuropathology were created for the first time in the world, the departments of nervous diseases of the medical faculties of Moscow and Kazan universities, which nurtured a galaxy of world-renowned neurologists. Within the walls of such famous educational institutions, domestic clinical medicine reached the highest development, original directions and schools appeared, the foundation of modern clinical neurology was laid.

The beneficial sexually transmitted microbe hypothesis of avian copulation

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain why female birds either copulate repeatedly with a single mate or copulate with multiple partners even though only a single copulation may be sufficient to fertilize an entire clutch. We hypothesize that females may directly benefit from high frequencies of copulation and multiple copulation partners if they receive a cloacal inoculation of beneficial sexually transmitted microbes (STMs) that can either protect them against future encounters with pathogens and/or serve as therapy against present infections. Experiments in domestic animal production, wildlife rehabilitation, and clinical medicine indicate that inoculations of beneficial microbes derived from the indigenous microflora of hosts can lead to nutritional benefits, resistance to colonization by pathogens, the elimination of infection, and improved immune system functioning in recipients. Our hypothesis predicts greater copulatory rates when the probability of the transmission of beneficial microbes exceeds that of pathogens and when the positive effects of beneficial microbes on host fitness exceed the negative effects of pathogens. Patterns of copulatory behavior in birds suggest the potential utility of our hypothesis. We discuss our hypothesis in the context of observed patterns of copulation in birds and propose some ways to directly test our hypothesis. Information on the probabilities of transmission during copulation of beneficial and pathogenic microbes and their relative potencies in birds are needed to directly test the predictions of our hypothesis.

Georgy Stepanovich Yumashev

April marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of G.S. Yumashev - one of the glorious galaxy of scientists who are the pride of domestic medicine.&#x0D; From the institute's bench, Georgy Stepanovich went to the front, where he went through the harsh school of a military surgeon. After the war, along with practical work, he engaged in scientific activities, showing himself not only as an experienced doctor, a virtuoso surgeon, but also as a promising scientist. The first steps in the field of science were made by him at CITO under the guidance of N.N. Priorov.

Anti-inflammatory activity of the crude extract from the fruits of Pterodon emarginatus Vog

The vegetal species Pterodon emarginatus Vog. (Leguminosae/Papilonaceae), popularly known in Brazil as ‘sucupira branca’, is widely used by domestic medicine as an anti-inflammatory. From these observations, the hexanic crude extract (HCE) of the fruits was obtained and submitted for assessment of its anti-inflammatory activity. For this purpose, the following tests were used: (1) Determination of ED 50 and LD 50; (2) Paw edema induced by carrageenin, dextran, histamine and nystatin; (3) Peritonitis caused by carrageenin and (4) Granuloma test. The ED 50 (oral) in the edema induced by carrageenin was 500 mg/kg, and LD 50 (oral) was 4.02 g/kg. In the edema caused by nystatin, there was a significant inhibition by 45% ( P< 0.05 student’s t-test) at the 6th hour following the treatment. In the granuloma test performed in animals treated with HCE, there was an inhibition of the granulomatous tissue formation by 22%. The migration of neutrophils towards the peritoneal cavity was inhibited in HCE treated animals by 43% ( P<0.05). However, in the edema caused by dextran and histamine, there was no significant response in HCE treated animals.

Headaches in Domestic Medicine by William Buchan.

In this paper, we consider the chapter on headaches contained in William Buchan's Domestic Medicine, a book that enjoyed great success during the second half of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, and belongs to the series of public education treatises that began with the publication of Avis au Peuple sur la Sante by Simon Andrè Tissot. In line with the ideals of the Enlightenment, Buchan's aim was to satisfy the needs of people who had no opportunity of consulting a physician by providing them with information about the symptoms and treatment of the most common diseases. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the book is the space dedicated to preventive medicine. In the chapter on headaches, as well as dealing extensively with their etiology, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics and treatment within the conceptual context of humoral medicine, the author also proposed a number of preventive measures that can still be considered fully acceptable today.

Foreign patients not a problem: International health care without a passport

Few would imagine Indiana resembles the land of the rising sun. More than likely it conjures images of farms and speedways. But to AAP President-elect Robert Hannemann, M.D., practicing medicine in the Hoosier state has allowed him to explore a kind of domestic international medicine, particularly when caring for the 100 to 150 Japanes9e children who seek care in his practice courtesy of a Subaru-Isuzu plant in town. In his Lafayette, Ind., practice serving patients who come from a semi-rural cosmopolitan area, Dr. Hannemann has learned to overcome language and cultural barriers and better himself as a pediatrician in the process.

Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions, and: Nature Doctors: Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine, and: Home Medicine: The Newfoundland Experience (review)

Reviewed by: Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions, and: Nature Doctors: Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine, and: Home Medicine: The Newfoundland Experience James Whorton Bonnie Blair O’Connor. Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions. Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving; and Publications of the American Folklore Society, new series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. xxiii + 287 pp. $36.95 (cloth); $16.95 (paperbound). Friedhelm Kirchfeld and Wade Boyle. Nature Doctors: Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine. Portland, Ore.: Medicina Biologica, and East Palestine, Ohio: Buckeye Naturopathic Press, 1994. x + 351 pp. Ill. $29.95 (paperbound). John K. Crellin. Home Medicine: The Newfoundland Experience. McGill—Queen’s/Hannah Institute Studies in the History of Medicine, Health and Society, no. 1. Montreal: McGill—Queen’s University Press, 1994. 280 pp. Ill. $44.95 (cloth); $17.95 (paperbound). The “immediate message” of Healing Traditions, O’Connor states in her concluding chapter, “is that nonbiomedical health belief systems are alive and well” (p. 161), and need to be taken into account by practitioners of the biomedical model of therapy. That message, of course, has become virtually a mantra in the last two years, in the aftermath of the article by David Eisenberg et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine pointing out the “enormous presence” of unconventional medicine in the United States. 1 These books all add to that renewed awareness of the pervasiveness of healing subcultures: two through tightly confined discussions, and O’Connor’s through an analysis directed at alternative medicine in general. [End Page 562] Nature Doctors is intended as the first book-length English history of naturopathy. As the subtitle indicates, however, it presents that history in the form of biographical sketches. Beginning with Priessnitz, and proceeding through Kneipp, Lust, and more than a dozen other figures down to John Bastyr, the recently deceased American “father of modern naturopathic medicine” (p. vi), Kirchfeld outlines the lives and work of the most important European and New World contributors to the philosophy and practice of nature cure, quoting liberally from the works of each. The outlines are uncritically reverential, to be sure: the “restless pilgrim for truth” and the “man of great compassion, keen intellect, and towering moral strength” (pp. 4, 29) are the only nature physicians inhabiting these pages. Their inspirational stories are valuable nonetheless for including a considerable quantity of factual data on ideas, therapies, and publications that allow the reader to piece together a chronology of the major stages of development of naturopathy, and even to discern an evolution of the philosophy of natural healing. The analytical limitations of the book notwithstanding, this will be a highly useful reference for historians interested in the past of alternative medicine, and, as Kirchfeld hopes, it can provide the foundation for a badly needed interpretive history of naturopathy’s development. A dominant theme in naturopathy, as well as in other alternative medical philosophies, is “patient, heal thyself.” Crellin’s encyclopedic survey of self-care traditions in Newfoundland, narrow as its focus appears to be, offers broadly applicable insight into the core of folk medical beliefs and practices that forms the historical basis for patients’ assumption of responsibility for their own recovery. Part 1 of the book is a narrative exploration of the course of domestic medicine in Newfoundland, set within the context of the province’s twentieth-century social history. The much lengthier part 2 presents the substance of domestic practice in the format of an alphabetical list and explanation of specific ailments, beliefs, practices, and remedies (herbs, minerals, patent medicines) gleaned from both folklore archives and interviews. There are well over one hundred entries between Abortion and Zam-Buk Ointment—many of them common to the rest of the hemisphere, some (“seal finger,” for example) not likely to be met with outside Newfoundland. Yet taken as a body, all these items document the historical persistence of lay confidence that effective medical decisions can often be made without the intervention of a professional. The significance of patient autonomy for the present flourishing of alternative medicine, and its implications for the training and clinical behavior of physicians and other health workers, is one of the larger themes of O’Connor...

Problems and ways of development of endosurgery in domestic medicine

At the beginning of the XX century , the famous Russian professor D. Ott suggested using ventroscopy for the diagnosis of diseases of the abdominal cavity organs, which allowed an examination of internal organs without an incision of the abdominal wall. For decades, surgeons such as Kelling, Kalk, Wittman, V. S. Saveliev, V. M. Buyanov, P. X. Vasiliev and others have done a lot to introduce into practice a low-traumatic method of invasive diagnostics - laparoscopy, in which the examination is carried out with an optical device inserted through a puncture of the abdominal wall.