A METHOD OF CONTROLLING RECTAL HEMORRHAGES

While serving as intern in Immanuel Hospital, I was called to see a patient 74 years old, who had been operated on four days previously for very large thrombotic hemorrhoids, which had become gangrenous. He was quite exsanguinated; the dressings were soaked, and a small stream of blood was flowing from the rectum. The patient was removed to the operating-room and I soon ascertained that the hemorrhage was taking place inside the sphincter, considerable quantities of blood being expelled periodically, after the "whistle tube" was withdrawn. I packed the rectum with cotton saturated with epinephrin (adrenalin chlorid), as the surgeon in charge telephoned me to do, but without giving relief. I then packed with gauze, but this too failed. I then resorted to the following method: Taking a piece of gauze about 18 inches square, I spread it in a single layer over a Kelly proctoscope, rubbed petrolatum into it