The mystery which dates back to early civilization, and which even now surrounds the pregnant woman, persists for many of the medical and allied professions which are not closely associated with obstetrics. Because of that attitude, nonobstetric surgical diseases concomitant with pregnancy may be maltreated with detrimental maternal and fetal results. For that reason, the usual knowledge of surgical ailments has not been applied when the disease is coexistent with gestation. Recently there has been some progress in the assessment of the problem.
Discouraged with the poor results that had been reported previously, Cosgrove and Brooks1 reviewed a series of their own patients. They concluded that the prognosis for the fetus and mother was unfavorable unless all surgical entities were treated in the same manner as if the patients were not pregnant. DeCarle's2 observations after an extensive study were that better results would be possible if a number