UNUSUAL RELATION BETWEEN MENSTRUAL FUNCTION AND ASCITES IN A CASE OF JUVENILE CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER

The following case report is worthy of record for several reasons: first, because ascites was the outstanding symptom at all times; second, because a Talma-Drummond-Morrison operation plus omentopexy was performed in an attempt to reduce the degree of ascites, and as far as we can learn this is the first case of juvenile cirrhosis in which such a procedure was utilized,¹ and third, because there was apparently a remarkable relationship between the degree of ascites and the menstrual function. Observations have been carried out over a period of six years, and while no conclusions have been reached as to the mechanism responsible for the reduction of the ascites coincidently with the establishment of menstrual function, the observations seem in themselves to be sufficiently interesting to warrant inclusion in the literature.

Juvenile portal cirrhosis (Laënnec's atrophie nodular cirrhosis) is a condition rarely encountered. Sutton² in 1930 was able