My Experience with "Intrauterine Medication"

My Experience with "Intrauterine Medication"

Related entries: Uterine Irrigation, Etc. in Menorrhagia - My Experience with Intrauterine Medication

N. J. CARRIKER, M. D., KANSAS CITY, MO.

The treatment for the various forms of uterine diseases in the past has been very unsatisfactory; and it may be said that there are few things which embarrass the practitioner more than the attempt to cure female troubles with former methods that were never specifically adapted.

Filled with fear and prejudice from early instruction, physicians have considered it dangerous to introduce liquids into the uterus lest they cause colic, or after confinement that air might enter the veins and end in embolism. It is scarcely possible to estimate the advantages that have been established by Dr. Woodward's work entitled "Intra-Uterine Medication," which gives every detail regarding the practice of his simple method of uterine irrigation. My experience with this new method, however, soon convinced me that our fears were imaginative, arising through the practice of the old elevated douche method.

This new method has been the means of controlling for me a class of uterine diseases manifesting the results of chronic inflammation, such as: anti- and retro-version, prolapsus uteri, sanguineous exudations and semimonthly hemorrhages, infection before and during the menopause, polypoid and fibroid growths, irritation resulting in reflex action, namely: pain in one or both sides, headache, backache and sciatica. The recital of one case will exemplify the efficacy of this modern method of uterine irrigation:

Mrs. C., age 26, mother of one child age four years. Examination disclosed the uterus three and a half inches deep, semi-everted and prolapsed, and a profuse, thick, white exudation; endometrium so extensively ulcerated as to exhibit, during the irrigation, sloughing membranes, followed with considerable hemorrhage after the first few treatments. She was troubled with headaches, backache, and a dull pain in the region of the left ovary; skin sallow, moist and relaxed; constipated and prostrated most of the time.

Treatment: To control the irritation and intra-utero infection her uterus was cleansed out every third day with two solutions: one, peroxide of hydrogen and the other a non-effervescing antiseptic, and the treatment finished with the insertion of a dehydrating and astringent pack against the os. Her bowels were stimulated to normal activity with the following remedies:

Sig.: One teaspoonful every three hours. The capillary circulation was restored by inunctions following each bath. Eight weeks of this treatment effected not only a cure, but brought many women to my office who were in need of similar aid. In fact, the method has been the means of greatly increasing my office business.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 3, 1909, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.