Errors in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy

Department of Reviews and Abstracts Selected Abstracts Cancer, Malignancies Daland, Ernest M.: Some Unusual Aspects of Cancer of the Breast, New England J. Med. 283: 515, 1945. The author gives a concise summary of the contributions of outstanding surgeons leading to the radical breast mastectomy for carcinoma. Early diagnosis and treatment are e.ssential for the cure in breast cancer. Vague symptoms in the breast, deformity, and lumps must be investigated by biopsy. Exceptions may be made to performing the radical operation in certain cases, such as sepsis in the cancer, old age, or poor physical condition. Occasionally, but rarely, a five-year survival is obtained by this procedure. Three cases of cancer of the breast in girls under nineteen are reported. JAMES P. MARR. Brooke, Wallace S., and Thomason, J. R.: Leiomyosarcoma of the Uterus With Metastasis to the Femur, Arch. Surg. 51: 120, 1945. The authors deal with sarcoma of the uterus, reporting such a case. Metastases from sarcoma of the uterus are most common in the lungs, peritoneum, lymphnodes, liver, and kidneys. Little has been written concerning metastases of uterine sarcomas to the bone, JAMES P. MARR. such as the authors report. .t(.ecasens Mendez-Queipo de Llano, lVl.: A uase of Probable Spontaneous .Heaung of a Chorionepithelioma, Rev. espan de obst. y ginec. 2: 86-88, 1945. In the treatment of an incomplete abortion in a 21-year-old patient, chorionepithelioma was diagnosed and radium treatment applied for forty-eight hours. Through accidental circumstances, the x-ray treatment which was to follow was delayed; and when the patient was examlned three months later and subseJiuently, normal function had been restored, and all evidence of the cancer had disappeared. J. P. GREENIDLL.

Extrauterine Pregnancy Clerc, J. P.:

Errors in the Diagnosis of Ectopic Pregnancy, Monatschr. f. Geburtsh. u.

The author analyzed eleven cases where errors in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy had been made. In four cases the ectopic gestations were not recognized and, in the remaining seven cases, ectopic pregnancy was diagnosed in the presence of other conditions. The author emphasizes that in ectopic pregnancy the symptoms are not characteristic. Of the 25 tubal pregnancies operated on every year at the Geneva Obstetric and Gynecologic Institute, errors are made in three or four cases. In doubtful cases exploratory procedures should be carried out. In the four cases erroneously diagnosed in the Clinic, the correct diagnosis J.P. GREENffiLL. was made by means of pelvic puncture. 695