Ruptures of The Vagina.

Ruptures of The Vagina.

These are attended with dangers similar to those belonging to rupture of the womb, and in addition by the risk of protrusion of the bladder, which appears through the lips of the vulva as a red, pyriform mass. Sometimes such lacerations extend downward into the bladder, and in others upward into the terminal gut (rectum). In still other cases the anus is torn so that it forms one common orifice with the vulva.

Too often such cases prove fatal, or at least a recovery is not attained, and urine or feces or both escape freely into the vagina. The simple laceration of the anus is easily sewed up, but the ends of the muscular fibers do not reunite and the control over the lower bowel is never fully reacquired. The successful stitching up of the wound communicating with the bladder or the rectum requires unusual skill and care, and though I have succeeded in a case of the latter kind, I can not advise the attempt by unprofessional persons.