Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
CAESAREAN SECTION
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: BUN-CAL
del.icio.us it!
|
CAESAREAN See also:SECTION , in See also:obstetrics (q.v.) the operation for removal of a foetus from the uterus by an abdominal incision, so called from a See also:legend of its employment at the See also:birth of See also:Julius See also:Caesar. This See also:procedure has been practised on the dead See also:mother since very See also:early times; in fact it was prescribed by See also:Roman See also:law that every woman dying in advanced pregnancy should be so treated; and in 16o8 the See also:senate of See also:Venice enacted that any practitioner who failed to perform this operation on a pregnant woman supposed to be dead, laid himself open to very heavy penalties. But the first recorded instance of its being performed on a living woman occurred about 1500, when a Swiss See also:pig-gelder operated on his own wife. From this See also:time onwards it was tried in many ways and under many conditions, but almost invariably with the same result, the See also:death of the mother. Even as recently as the first See also:half of the 19th See also:century the recorded mortality is over 50%. Thus it is no surprise that craniotomy—in which the See also:life of the See also:child is sacrificed to See also:save that of the mother—was almost invariably preferred. As the use of See also:antiseptics was not then understood, and as it was customary to return the uterus to the See also:body cavity without suturing the incision, the immediate cause of death was either septicaemia or See also:haemorrhage. But in 1882 See also:Sanger published his method of suturing the uterus—that of employing two See also:series of sutures, one deep, the other superficial. This method of procedure was immediately adopted by many obstetricians, and it has proved so satisfactory that it is still in use to-See also:day. This, and the increasing knowledge of aseptic technique, has brought the mortality from this operation to less than 3 % for the mother and about 5% for the child; and every See also:year it is being advised more freely for a larger number of morbid conditions, and with increasingly favourable results. Craniotomy, i.e. crushing the See also:head of the foetus to reduce its See also:size, is now very rarely performed on the living child, but symphysiotomy, i.e. the See also:division of the symphysis pubis to produce a temporary enlargement of the See also:pelvis, or caesarean section, is advocated in its See also:place. Of these two operations, symphysiotomy is steadily being replaced by caesarean section. This operation is now advised for (1) extreme degrees of pelvic contraction, (2) any malformation or See also:tumour of the uterus, cervix or vagina, which would render the birth of the child through the natural passages impossible, (3) maternal complications, as eclampsia and concealed accidental haemorrhage, and (4) at the death of the mother for the purpose of saving the child. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] CAESAREA PHILIPPI |
[next] CAESIUM (symbol Cs, atomic weight 132.9) |