CHRONIC OVARITIS AND OVARALGIA.
Under the term ovaritis is understood congestion or the result of con • gestion of the ovary. The organ, on the hi-manual, is found enlarged, sensitive, possibly at a lower level than normal. It is movable, not fixed. This definition is given for the reason that it is desirable to sharply differ entiate simple oophoritis from that which accompanies pelvic exudations or disease of the tubes. These latter forms will be considered under the head of chronic pelvic peritonitis. The enlarged, tender ovary we are at present considering, finds its analogue in orchitis in the male. For the relief of the condition there is nothing so effective as galvanism, and withal without the unpleasant after-effects which follow on resort to the only other practically effective means—the blister over the ovarian region.
Under repeated galvanization the pain and the congestion are often speedily relieved, and if the condition has not become complicated with pelvic peritonitis, etc., these symptoms may be effectually cured. The current should be mild, the positive pole internal, as near to the ovary as possible for its sedative effect.
Similar remarks are applicable to oophoralgia, the term which serves as a cloak for our ignorance in those cases where we can determine no appreciable local reason for the pain complained of, and yet which from its site seems to emanate from the ovary. Here, however, sometimes
galvanism secures relief from the pain, but in other instances it does not while faradism does. The exact reason for this difference we cannot offer except that a neuralgia of the ovary is simply as erratic as are ueuralgias of other organs of the body. Rockwell' gives us a guide, in regard to the choice of current, which is deduced from the effects of pressure. Where pressure intensifies the pain he has found that galvanism gives relief, and where the reverse holds true faradism is preferable., This principle in regard to pressure he has found of value in determining the current to be selected for the relief of external neuralgias, and he depends on it in case of ovaralgia. Engelmann has found the galvanic current as chiefly of value in the relief of pain in chronic cases, while a high tension faradic current has seemed preferable in acute cases. The observer will have to test this question for himself in the individual case, beginning preferably with galvanism, and changing to faradism in case of failure.