Battey's operation as a treatment for hysteria: a review of a series of cases in the nineteenth century.

Ovarian resection as a treatment for hysteria, called 'Battey's operation' or 'normal ovariotomy', was performed in the nineteenth century. Battey later reported that the resected ovaries appeared to have 'cystic degeneration'. Currently, patients with acute neuropsychiatric symptoms are screened for teratomas for the differential diagnosis of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. There is now a hypothesis that ovarian lesions resulting in paraneoplastic encephalitis were among the patients who underwent Battey's operation. We identified 94 published cases of Battey's operation for neuropsychiatric symptoms in the late nineteenth century. Among 36 cases with detailed descriptions, we found 3 patients who showed acute onset neuropsychiatric symptoms with macropathological ovarian findings that were compatible with teratoma. They showed favourable prognoses after surgery and might have motivated the surgeons to perform the operation.

Ephraim McDowell's Ovariotomy on General Overton's Wife.

Ephraim McDowell's removal of a massive ovarian tumor from Jane Todd Crawford in Danville, Kentucky, in 1809 revolutionized the practice of surgery. Most academic physicians then believed that operating in the abdomen would inevitably result in peritonitis and death. McDowell proved them wrong and performed numerous ovariotomies with an acceptable complication rate for the era. His expertise brought patients from afar. McDowell also operated on patients in their homes, sometimes far from Danville. This article addresses an operation done in Nashville, Tennessee, on Penelope Holmes Overton, wife of General Thomas Overton, a prominent Tennessean.

[Influence of anesthesia and antisepsis on the earliest gynecologic laparotomies: historical notes on the bicentennial of the introduction of ovariectomy]. / Influencias de la anestesia y antisepsia sobre las primeras laparotomías ginecológicas. Notas históricas a propósito del 2do centenario de la introducción de la ovariectomía.

On the occasion of the bicentennial of the first ovariectomy, we reviewed the beginnings of abdominal gynecologic surgery in Spain in order to shed light on aspects that are still unclear in medical historiography and that are often wrongly presented. We consulted a large number of sources that allowed us to follow events in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, discovering information we consider definitive and that confirmed our initial hypotheses. The work of Dr Federico Rubio, the first to perform an ovariectomy in Spain, is highlighted among the early experiences of our Spanish surgeons. Emphasis is placed on the high mortality rate associated with this operation at the beginning. We also analyze the problems of anesthesia and antisepsis and the influence of each on the surgical procedure. The events uncovered were the work of a group of forward-thinking surgeons who made considerable progress against opposing groups with more conservative views and whose contributions to Spanish surgery were far less brilliant.

The first successful elective laparotomy.

The first time the abdomen was opened at an elective operation, the pathology excised and made a smooth recovery was not, as you might guess, performed in some famous university hospital in the British Isles or mainland Europe about a hundred years ago, but in a private house in the backwoods of Kentucky in 1807, and the story is a fascinating one.

[From the history of the ovariotomies. The private hospital in the field of Jelling]. / Traek af ovariotomiens historie. Privathospitalet på Jelling Mark.

The first intraabdominal operation where the patient survived was an ovariotomy performed by Ephraim McDowell Christmas Day 1809. The patient was mrs. Jane Todd Crawford and in her pain and desperation she appeared willing to undergo the operation. After five weeks she was cured and on horseback she went back to Greensburg where she lived. In Great Britain the famous surgeon Spencer Wells was the most important of the pioneers. He performed over twelve hundred ovariotomies. But in Denmark the first nine patients died. Then Julius Boye - a general practitioner and a farmer, but also a selfmade surgeon - published a case in 1867 where the patient survived.. He had performed the operation and many others in a little house in the country far from hospitals. You may say that the house was a Private Hospital When Boye had presented his case the ovariotomy soon became a routine operation like others.

Prophylactic oophorectomy: a historical perspective.

Removal of a woman's ovaries (known as bilateral oophorectomy, ovariectomy or, historically, ovariotomy) is undertaken in a number of countries. An estimated 19,000 women aged <60 years had a bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy in the UK in 2003, either as a planned response to an increased specific genetic risk of ovarian or breast cancer or, more frequently, as a prophylactic measure to prevent ovarian cancer. Despite its popularity, however, a full evaluation of the risks, costs and benefits of prophylactic oophorectomy in the absence of genetic markers and at the time of hysterectomy has not yet been undertaken. This paper seeks to provide a historical perspective on current practice by outlining approaches to the ovary in Britain from the 19th century onwards. Historically, ovarian removal has raised many questions about the costs and benefits of surgery. The aim of this article is to highlight the issues, and in so doing, to contribute to a more informed assessment of current practice.