Perforating inflammation of the vermiform appendix : with special reference to its early diagnosis and treatment / by Reginald H. Fitz.

  • Fitz, Reginald H. (Reginald Heber), 1843-1913.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Perforating inflammation of the vermiform appendix : with special reference to its early diagnosis and treatment / by Reginald H. Fitz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    gestion of Puclielt, of Heidelberg, wrote bis graduation-thesis upon the same subject. He adopted the views of the French writers, and applied the term perityphlitis to the disease described. His essay contains the report of a case of perforation of the appendix and associated peri- tonitis. But he regards it as one of fecal retention, and as quite distinct from the perityphlitis or inflammation of the connective tissue around the caecum. He states that in fatal cases of the latter affection the appendix has been found intact. Of the various names connected with the early history of the disease under consideration that of John Burne, Physician to the Westminster Hospital, deserves particular mention. In the first1 of two admirable articles separated by an interval of two years, he calls attention to the material difference in the character of inflammation of the appendix and that of the crncum. He attributes this difference to the peculiar conformation and situation of the former. His second paper2 contains an additional number of cases of affections of the ctecum and appendix a criticism of the opinions of the French writers, and a reiteration of his own views with such modifications as a more extended experience permitted. The name tuphlo-enteritis is offered as an equivalent for inflammation and perforative ulceration of the caecum and of the PIn the interval between the publication of the above-mentioned articles, Albers3 contributed a paper on inflammation of the cmcum. He first introduces the tern typhlitis, and discriminates between acute chronic, and stercoral typhlitis and perityphlitis. He charges Puclielt and foreign writers with confounding the last affection with the acute and stercoral varieties of typhlitis. The frequent termination of the perityphlitis in abscess is recognized, likewise the possibility of com- munication between the pus-cavity and that of the appendix or c^cum This communication he regards as secondary. He says, It is not at all clear just why the processus vcrmiformis should be so often affecte , for in this disease perforation of the caecum should be far more likely than that of the appendix.” Although the term perityphlitis thus became synonymous with nflammation of the pericsecal tissue, the tendency was inevi a y 2 Ibid., 1839, xxii. 33. l Med.-Chir. Trans., 1837, xx. 219. 3 Beob. auf d. Geb. d. Path, und Path. Anat., 2tor Tbeil, 1838, . 4 Op. cit., p. 19.