Of all the nightmares that haunt an able surgeon, none is worse than his fear of infection after an abdominal operation. When he goes after an appendix, a ruptured spleen, a gall bladder, a twisted or telescoped bowel or a cancered stomach, he never knows at what moment the sewage system of the human body may, for all his skill, spring a leak, with disastrous results.
To reach any of these organs the surgeon must cut through the peritoneum, a closed sack within the hollow of the abdomen. The outside coat of the...
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