The Present Problems in Abdominal Section

The Present Problems in Abdominal Section is a surgical paper by Horatio Robinson Storer (1830-1922), the American gynecologist and obstetric surgeon. Abdominal section refers to the surgical opening of the abdominal cavity, the major operation that gynecological and general surgery had been progressively learning to perform safely across the second half of the nineteenth century.

Storer was one of the American pioneers of ovariotomy, the surgical removal of ovarian tumors, which was among the earliest successful major abdominal operations performed in the United States. The procedure had been pioneered by Ephraim McDowell in Kentucky in 1809 and had been progressively refined through the middle decades of the nineteenth century as American and European surgeons learned the techniques required for safe abdominal surgery.

The paper addresses the technical questions and clinical problems that abdominal surgery still presented in the period when antiseptic surgery and anesthesia were transforming the field. Storer’s contributions to the developing American specialty of gynecological surgery were extensive across his long career.