A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.330

v1.c23.330

Its subjects are: aśmarī as a serious disease, resembling death itself; it is amenable to medicinal treatment in the early stages, but in an advanced stage surgical intervention is necessary (7.3); treatment in the stage when prodromes only are present (7.4); the medicinal treatment of calculi caused by vāta (7.5–9ab), pitta (7.9cd–13), and kapha (7.14–16); the treatment of śarkarā (gravel) (7.17–19ab); more recipes against calculi and gravel (7.19cd–26); conditions making surgical treatment inevitable (7.27–29);⁸⁸ pre-operative measures, the positioning of the patient, the manipulation of the calculus before its removal (7.30); signs presenting themselves during the preparatory stage which indicate that it is better to abstain from carrying out the operation (7.31–32); the lithotomic operation (7.33–34);⁸⁹ post-operative management; the treatment of śukrāśmarī or gravel that has got stuck in the urethra (7.35); organs that should not be injured during lithotomy; complications arising from injury to these organs (7.36); the eight marmans to be avoided by a surgeon performing lithotomy: the sevanī (the raphe of the perineum), the semen-expelling (śukrahara) channels, the channels belonging to the testicles, the ano-rectal region, the mūtrapraseka,⁹⁰ the urinary passage (mūtravaha), the female genitals (yoni), and the bladder⁹¹ (7.37–38).