Abdominal surgery - 1888 Author:James Greig Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Section III. OPERATIONS ON THE OVARIES, THE FALLOPIAN TUBES, AND THE BROAD LIGAMENTS. By far the most important and extensive part of abdominal surgery is ... more »concerned with tumours of the ovary. It was here that the surgery of the abdomen signalised its first triumphs; and it has been chiefly through the practical experience gained in this field that the present proud position of peritoneal surgery has been established. In this section we have to deal with the ovaries, the broad ligaments and parovarium, and the Fallopian tubes. For the sake of practical convenience, inflammatory diseases of the ovaries are considered along with diseases of the Fallopian tubes; the whole being collectively treated under Removal of the Uterine Appendages. Operations for growths in the broad ligament and parovarium, though they are usually described as ovariotomies, are here separately considered. Ovariotomy. SURGICAL ANATOMY OF THE OVARY. The ovaries lie in the posterior fold of the broad ligament, at the level of the brim of the pelvis. In front, they are in contact with the broad ligaments; behind, they are separated from the rectum by the coils of ileum which usually occupy Douglas's pouch. Their position is not fixed and stable; displacements are caused, normally, by the filling and emptying of the bladder and the rectum ; and, pathologically, by enlargements and malpositions of the uterus. The ovary is attached to the broad ligament along one border, and to the uterus by a rounded fold of peritoneum containing muscular fibre (the utero-ovarian ligament), which is inserted into its internal extremity; at its external extremity is attached that part of the upper border of the broad ligament known as tubo-ovarian or infundibulo-pelvic. The ovary therefore occupies the apex of a ...« less