It is not unusual to come upon a surgical mystery on the mission field. The expression "I don't know what it is but its the worst case I've every seen" is funny, but true.
One time a elderly female patient came to see us with a complaint of pelvic pain and vaginal bleeding. She had a scar on her lower abdomen but did not know what surgery had been done. We feared the worst and assumed she had cervical cancer. We performed a pelvic exam and felt something like a wire ring in her upper vagina, but we could not remove it.
We put the patient asleep and repeated the exam. We could see some wire rings partially eroding through the vagina. We grabbed them with a clamp and, with some difficulty, pulled the object out. She recovered without difficulty.
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| Pessaries |
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| Homemade pessary |
After the surgery, we got the rest of the story. Someone had made her a homemade pessary for uterine prolapse. She had it is place for years! Here are some modern pessaries.
