LAPAROTOMY 205 



urine and where it is found impossible or inadvis- 

 able to pass the catheter. The operation is simple 

 and harmless if proper surgical methods are used 

 and should be performed without hesitation when 

 conditions indicate it. The point of insertion of the 

 fine trocar or hypodermic needle is directly anterior 

 to the brim of the pelvis in the middle line in the 

 bitch and just to one side of the penis in the dog. 

 The operative area is shaved and disinfected as 

 usual and the trocar, cannula, or hypodermic needle 

 sterilized by boiling. The patient should be in the 

 standing position, owing to the danger of rupturing 

 the bladder during the struggling incident to being 

 laid on the table. 



Laparotomy 



Laparotomy, or abdominal section, is the prelude 

 to many surgical manipulations of the abdominal or 

 pelvic organs. It is classed among the major opera- 

 tions, but thanks to aseptic surgery it has now lost 

 most of its former terrors and dangers. 



The incision should be made in the linea alba in 

 the long axis of the body, directly over the organ 

 it is desired to remove or subsequently operate on. 

 By the middle-line incision hemorrhage is avoided, 

 the mammary glands in the case of the bitch are 

 not interfered with, and the scar is scarcely noticed 

 a month or so after operation. Complete surgical 

 anesthesia is essential, otherwise the omentum or 

 intestines are liable to protrude through the wound 

 and seriously handicap the operator, besides increas- 

 ing an hundred-fold the risk of that bete noir of ab- 

 dominal surgery — infection, with its sequelae of peri- 

 tonitis and death. 



The animal should be in the dorsal position, then 

 general anesthesia induced by H-M-C and chloro- 

 form. The instruments used, scalpel, razor, dress- 



