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The Use of Opaque Substances as an Aid to Diagnosis in Gynæcological Conditions

Grosvenor Hospital for Women

This excerpt was created in the absence of an abstract.

The progress in the use of Röntgen Rays both as to diagnosis and treatment in the departments of medicine and surgery has been remarkable and extraordinarily rapid since Röntgen first made his discovery, and although perhaps the results of X-ray examination in one department may appeal to the ordinary observer more than in that of another, on account of the many lesions which may be diagnosed by its means, yet there is no branch of either department which cannot express grateful thanks to the memory of Röntgen for the invaluable aid his work has brought about. Up till quite recently, gynæcology was not so much indebted to the X rays, at least as a means of diagnosis, for I do not include treatment, because there was nothing which, in the majority of cases, could not be diagnosed with sufficient accuracy to enable one to say whether a patient was to have an abdominal operation or not. I do not include obstetrics in my remarks, because in case of doubt in deciding whether a tumour of the abdomen is due to adventitious growth or to pregnancy, the X-ray becomes invaluable. If one had to discuss the use of X rays in the treatment of diseases of women, there would be much to be mentioned in regard to their influence on menorrhagia, uterine fibroids, malignant disease, and the effect of stimulating doses in certain of what has been called "ovarian dysfunctions."¹