TO THE TECHNIQUE OF CONSERVATIVE CESARIAN SECTION OPERATION

Caesarean section, which in the previous pre-antiseptic time gave a staggering percentage of mortality, really seemed too risky an operation; according to statistics collected by Joulin in Traité d'Acouchements, this percentage, according to different authors, fluctuated between 44.5% and 66.6%. According to Lazarevich (Course of Obstetrics published in 1892), the mortality rate in the old days was 80%. After the introduction of antiseptics and mainly after the improvements in the surgical technique proposed by Sänger, the mortality rate can be so much that if the operation is performed in a good environment and by the hands of an experienced surgeon, then less than 10% is obtained; thus, Leopold's caesarean sections gave only 8% of the adverse outcomes.