ABSTRACT
Genital prolapse and its management constitute a major part of the practice of gynaecology. The literature is very extensive and moreover shows a continued and progressive development of the methods available for cure of the condition, without the sudden breaks that characterize the history of so many other branches of medicine. For this reason much of what has been written about prolapse in the past is still valid, and all modern methods are based on the works of many pioneers such as Professor V.N. Shirodkar and Professor B.N. Purandare from the Indian subcontinent.At the same time, and in spite of the weight of tradition, the treatment of genital prolapse is essentially a practical discipline – it may legitimately be called a craft – and practice must be based primarily on direct experience.The object of the present chapter is to clarify and systematize a personal experience (of the senior author) gained from some 5000 vaginal hysterectomies carried out for genital prolapse. One of Descartes’ rules may be quoted as an apologia [1]:
In the subjects we propose to study we must enquire, not what others have taught, nor what we ourselves conjecture, but what we can clearly and evidently see, or what we can infer with certainty: for that is the only way in which knowledge is acquired.
