Uterine fibroid

“ Great and lasting injury is often done in the attempt to complete the diagnosis at the first examination. The presence of a fibroid in the posterior uterine wall with post-uterine inflammation is a serious complication both in diagnosis and treatment. If the rectum be overloaded with fecal matter, the diagnosis should be deferred. The displacement is distinguished from the presence of an ovary or small ovarian tumor in the pouch of Douglas by careful bimanual examination and by the probe. ”

“ None of the symptoms are absolutely pathognomonic of cancer. During the menstrual life of the woman hemorrhage from the womb occurs as a symptom of a great variety of diseases; and even in the post-climacteric period, though hemorrhage should always excite alarm, yet it may be caused by a benign form of endometritis or intra-uterine growth. The pain of cancer may also characterize a variety of benign conditions; and the vaginal discharge, even when most offensive, may be simulated by that from a sloughing intra-uterine fibroid. ”

“ Occasionally the passage of a fœtus is barred by tumours growing from the uterus, especially a large cervix fibroid, or a fibroid growing from the lower segment of the uterine wall. An ovarian cyst, especially a dermoid incarcerated by the uterus, may render this operation necessary. The rarest causes are cancer of the neck of the uterus and cancer of the rectum. ”

“ Chronic inflammation of the endometrium, or chronic endometritis, is much more frequently seen in practice than the acute form. It may occur as a primary disease, but it very often occurs as the result of some other pathological condition of the uterus, as, for instance, subinvolution or uterine fibroid. ”

“ It is easier to make a differential diagnosis between an ovarian cyst and pregnancy than between some forms of uterine fibroid and pregnancy.
Repeated examinations are often necessary. It is always advisable, in any case, to make two or more examinations before subjecting the woman to operation. Much which was not at first apparent may be learned by several days of watching and repeated examination.
Phantom tumor is a rare condition. A woman imagines 387 that she is suffering from a tumor and that her abdomen is increasing in size. ”

“ Then, again, women burdened with a fibroid tumor so far from losing flesh usually become more fat, and their complexion, like that of many pregnant women, is mottled with patches of brown pigment. Further, the uterine cavity is usually much longer than natural, and when the tumor is moved from side to side the motion is communicated to the sound passed within the cavity. But every rule has its exceptions, for when an ovarian cyst has a close attachment to the womb the latter may become elongated and also follow the movements communicated to the tumor. ”

“ A chief feature characteristic of uterine disease is malnutrition from atrophy— a sudden curtailing of the blood-supply from the degeneration of the genital-nerve apparatus and consequent impaired vitality of tissue from defective nourishment. The anatomic changes in the glands and substance of the uterus also favor the irritation, and the development of new growths, which may be malignant or benign— as cancers, fibroid growths, and so forth. ”

“ Menstruation may aggravate goitre, uterine fibroid tumours, skin diseases, and affections of the blood vessels. Disordered menstruation causes sleeplessness, melancholy, dementia, and mania, by affecting the brain; it may bring on local paralysis; start up latent epilepsy; excite reflex cough and difficulty in breathing; make the heart irritable; cause nausea, vomiting, dyspepsia, flatulence, diarrhoea, skin-inflammations, pain in the joints, and many other symptomatic phenomena. ”

“ This is an operation which is much less frequently resorted to than formerly, owing partly to the risks of sepsis attending its performance and partly to the greater perfection of the bimanual examination. Passing the uterine sound should always be looked upon as a surgical operation. The facts learnt by the use of the sound are: (1) the length and direction of the uterine cavity; (2) the condition of the endometrium: bleeding as a rule follows withdrawal in fibro-myomata and endometrial disease; (3) whether a fibroid growth is projecting into the uterine cavity, and if so, how much. ”

“ Sometimes, in cases of fibroid tumor, the broad ligament is very much hypertrophied and contains enormous veins, and additional ligatures besides those on the ovarian and uterine arteries are required. It is often necessary to place a large number of forceps upon bleeding vessels on the surface of the tumor as it is cut away from the broad ligament. ”

“ It is well known that uterine fibroids bear a definite relation to organic sexual activity, and that sexual abstinence, more especially the long-continued deprivation of pregnancy, is a very important cause of the disease. ”

“ The name of Atlee stands without a rival in connection with uterine fibroids ... no man has yet dared to imitate him. A generation has passed since he gave to the world his valuable essay on the subject, but it is only within the past five or six years that the profession has come to appreciate the great truths he labored to establish. ”

“ There is probably no tumor in the body strictly analogous in structure, mode of origin, supply, or development to the fibroid tumor of the uterus. There is no other organ in the body that undergoes analogous normal trophic changes. The vast multiplication of tissue that takes place in the uterus during gestation, and the more rapid but equally great changes toward degeneration or atrophy, would naturally suggest pathological possibilities of a peculiar nature. The rhythmical changes of menstruation are like no other functional condition. ”

“ In the treatment of fibroids various drugs (ergot, hamamelis, hydrastis canadensis) may be tried to control the haemorrhage, and repose and the injection of hot water (120° F.) are sometimes successful, together with electrical treatment. Surgical measures are needed, however, in severe recurrent haemorrhage, intestinal obstruction, sloughing and the co-existence of pregnancy. An endeavour must be made if possible to enucleate the fibroid, or hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) may be required. The operation of removal of the ovaries to precipitate the menopause has fallen into disuse. ”

“ They do not form circumscribed new growths, but affect the whole organ, which becomes uniformly hypertrophied, preserving its general shape and anatomical relations. The tumor may contain, between the bundles of fibrous tissue, small cavities filled with fluid. The growth is usually intra-peritoneal and has a well-formed pedicle; it may, however, in exceptional cases be extra-peritoneal and develop between the layers of the broad ligament. In such a case there is difficulty in determining whether the fibroid originated in the uterus or in the ovary. ”

“ Preservation of the Ovaries in Hysterectomy.—Many surgeons consider it advisable to leave the ovaries in hysterectomy for fibroid tumor of the uterus in case these organs are not diseased. If the woman has not yet reached the menopause the disagreeable symptoms of the artificially induced menopause are thus avoided, and any metabolic function that the ovaries may possess is preserved. In hysterectomy for fibroid in women under forty years of age with healthy ovaries it is advisable to leave these organs if this can be done without seriously complicating the operation. ”

“ They grow slowly, and are usually definitely circumscribed by a fibrous capsule, from which they are easily enucleated, and they do not tend to recur after removal. In their growth they merely push aside and compress adjacent parts, and they present no tendency to ulcerate and bleed unless the overlying skin or mucous membrane is injured. Although usually solitary, some are multiple from the outset--for example, fatty, fibrous, and bony tumours, warts, and fibroid tumours of the uterus. ”

“ Many women, therefore, whose lives should have been imperilled but once, have been compelled to face the dangers of a second operation. In view of these facts, it seems to me wise to remove the sound ovary in all cases of sterility, in every case of malignant degeneration of one ovary, and in all women who have either passed the climacteric or are approaching it, provided its removal is not attended with great additional risk. Double extirpation should also be performed whenever the womb [p. 338] contains a fibroid tumor or whenever it seems desirable to hasten on the climacteric. ”

“ In a large number of instances in which operations have been undertaken when fibroids complicate pregnancy, they have been performed on an erroneous diagnosis. The tumours when small and placed laterally simulate ovarian cysts; when large and lying high in the abdomen they have been mistaken for renal tumours, and when low in the pelvis they have been regarded as incarcerated ovarian cysts. The variety of fibroid most likely to lead to operation, under the impression that it is an ovarian cyst, is an interstitial fibroid which becomes painful in consequence of undergoing red degeneration. ”

“ A group of gynaecologists maintain that when fibromata cause dangerous symptoms in pregnancy the uterus should be taken out in part or wholly if the tumour is so deeply involved in the uterine wall that it can not be separated. This operation, of course, kills the foetus. At times the child is viable, and a precedent caesarean section will save it. Surgeons do not remove fibromata merely as a precaution, as they sometimes do in the case of ovarian cysts. Other surgeons say it is safe to wait. If the channel of delivery is blocked, these men wait till term and then do caesarean {42} section ”

“ At the menopause, in the majority of cases, the growth of the tumor is arrested, and the retrograde changes that affect the genital apparatus involve also the fibroid tumor, and atrophy of the neoplasm, with marked diminution in size, and in some cases its complete disappearance, may take place. The tumor becomes quiescent, and the woman may finish her life in comparative comfort. This, however, is by no means always the case. The fibroid sometimes continues to grow after the menopause, and the suffering is sometimes so unbearable that the woman is finally driven to operation. ”

“ From the researches of von Gurlt, compiled from the Vienna Hospital Reports, embracing 15,880 cases of tumour, females exceed males in the proportion of seven to three, and of this large majority uterine growths account for 25%. When we consider its periodic monthly engorgements and the alternate hypertrophy and involution it undergoes in connexion with pregnancy, we can anticipate the special proneness of the uterus to new growths. Tumours of the uterus are divided into benign and malignant. The benign tumours known as fibroids or myomata are very common. ”

“ In unmarried women the development of a small fibroid with its reflex disturbances is sure to be followed by excessive reaction in many ways. Nervous symptoms are likely to be marked and the increase in menstruation is usually much more profuse as a consequence of the solicitude than because of the fibroid. Some of these tumors which, though of small size, are so situated with regard to the nervous and circulatory systems of the uterus as to produce {450} profuse menstruation even in women of phlegmatic disposition. ”

“ As so little is known of the remedy, I wish to report one case that was not at all indicated by the proving and two cases under the care of an old school doctor. My case was that of a lady aged about forty, who for two years was under the care of a homœopathic doctor for some trouble, I don't know what; then two years under the care of another homœopathic doctor for a fibroid of the uterus. She had twice consulted a specialist in Boston, who said it could not be removed. Then she came under my care with a fibroid as large as a fetus at full term. ”

“ Intestines or omentum may also lie in this cup. In cases of long standing the rim of the cup formed by the muscular cervix becomes very much contracted, and adhesions may take place between the peritoneal surfaces. These complications offer great, sometimes insurmountable, difficulty to reduction in old cases. 266
Inversion of the uterus is not a common disease. It is very rarely seen at the present day.
By far the most frequent form is that which follows labor; it is much less often caused by fibroid polyp. It seems especially likely to occur in sarcoma of the uterus. ”

“ The intra-ligamentous fibroid grows from the side of the uterus or from the supra-vaginal cervix. It pushes apart the peritoneal folds of the broad ligament, and grows between them or beneath them. The tumor is thus outside of the peritoneum. It may fill the whole pelvis with a dense unyielding mass, pushing the uterus to the pelvic wall, destroying anatomical relations, and exerting most disastrous pressure upon blood-vessels, nerves, ureters, and other pelvic structures. ”

“ In a young woman with a fibroid tumor of small size that is not causing serious symptoms operation may be deferred and the case may be watched. This plan is especially desirable if the woman is anxious to have children. She should be told, however, that conception is less likely to occur than in the well woman, that she is liable to abort, and that the tumor will grow more rapidly during her pregnancy. ”

“ In dysmenorrhoea the pain is ovarian, more violent, and aggravated with the cessation of the discharge, whilst in abortion it is uterine, more particularly referable to the cervix in the period of dilatation and to the fundus in that of expulsion, and lessens or ceases with the cessation of the discharge. The hemorrhage due to fibroids and polypi may greatly resemble that of abortion, especially if mole formations occur, but the pregnant and aborting uterus is greater in size than the congested menstrual organ. ”