A practical treatise on the diseases, injuries and malformations of the urinary bladder, the prostate gland, and the urethra / by Samuel D. Gross.

  • Gross, Samuel D. (Samuel David), 1805-1884.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases, injuries and malformations of the urinary bladder, the prostate gland, and the urethra / by Samuel D. Gross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    either by a blow on the perineum, or by the introduction of an instrument in the region of the prostate, the probability is that it proceeds from this gland, and not from the urinary passages, properly so termed. When the hemorrhage is caused by an ulcer of the prostate, or the presence of a tumor, the circumstance is, in general, easily determined by the sound or catheter. The prognosis of this variety of hemorrhage is favorable or otherwise according as it is simple or traumatic, or dependent upon ulceration of the gland, or the presence of malignant dis- ease. In the former case, it is generally readily amenable to treatment, and, therefore, free from danger; in the latter, it is commonly obstinate, and irremediable. The treatment of hemorrhage of the prostate is to be con- ducted upon the same principles as that of hemorrhage of the urinary passages generally. In many cases, it ceases sponta- neously, or readily yields to rest in the recumbent posture, cold applications to the perineum, and iced, acidulated drinks. Where these means fail, or where the bleeding is at all copious, recourse is to he had to the exhibition of gallic acid, in union with opium, every two or three hours, in the proportion of two or three grains of the former to half a grain of the latter. Few cases resist this combination beyond ten or twelve hours, and in many instances it arrests the discharge much sooner. When gallic acid fails to afford relief, acetate of lead, alum, sulphuric acid, spirit of turpentine, ergotine, and the tincture of the chloride of iron, may be used as substitutes, with a reasonable hope of success. As adjuvants, cold applications to the anus, perineum, and the hypogastric region should not be neglected. ^ Sometimes marked relief has followed the exhibition of Rus- pini'a styptic. In a case treated by Mr. Brodie,1 in which a frightful hemorrhage was connected with a very diseased pros- tate, it promptly arrested the discharge after all other remedies had failed. • 1 Brodie's Select Works, p. 100. Phila., 1847.