Series 2 - Prostatectomy Notebooks

c 120pp

Two notebooks recording brief details of 1,724 prostatectomies, performed by Peter Freyer. The details given for each case are arranged in columns as follows: date; name and address of patient and the name of the referral doctor; length of time of operation; age of patient; weight of prostate; number of days before the patient passed urine naturally; number of days before the wound closed; number of days spent in hospital and whether the operation was a success.The vast majority of cases were performed on private patients, a 'H' beside the patient's name denotes a hospital patient. Various notes are added, some at a later date and some in red ink. These include details of visits and correspondence from former patients and of their deaths. There are also medical annotations referring to calculus and cancer. Freyer usually only did one operation per day except for hospital cases where he might do as many as 4 operations in the one day, for example see 9 Dec 1909. The number of operations performed per month varies from 1-17, with an average of about 8 per month. Quite a number of patients were either army officers, clerics or titled gentlemen, such as Sir Robert Pearce MP [see case no 1,309]. Many patients lived in London or the surrounding counties but addresses in New Zealand, Natal, India, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Bucharest and Paris are also recorded. At least 2 patients came from Ireland [see case nos 1407 and 1624]. It is evident that at least one of Freyer's patients either was or became a friend, see the case history of Lord Pirrie recorded in Feb 1912 [case no 937]. Very few patients were under the age of 60. The time taken for the operation varied from 2½ - 10 minutes, most operations taking between 2½ - 5 minutes. The weight of the prostate averaged between 2-4 ounces but rose as high as 9¼ ounces [see case nos 254 and 301]. The first 2 pages indicate the prostates sent to the College of Surgeons' Museum, England. The columns for the length of time the patient took to pass urine naturally, for the wound to close and for their stay in hospital is not always filled in. It is apparent however that the operation required at least a month's stay in a hospital or nursing home. Occasionally the attendance of a visiting doctor at an operation is recorded, for example operations were viewed on 2 Jan 1906 by Dr L E Schmidt from Chicago and on 4 July 1907 by Dr Francisco Mollard, Buenos Ayres. On 26 July 1911 'about 100 foreign surgeons' were present at an operation, which was not a success. However on average only about 1 in 20 patients are recorded as having died. Operations in late July 1914 were attended by members of the American Surgeons' Congress [see 29 and 31 July 1914].

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27/06/2013
13/11/2013