A manual of operative surgery / By Lewis A. Stimson.

  • Lewis Atterbury Stimson
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of operative surgery / By Lewis A. Stimson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    the limb to a jioiiit three or lour iiiclies above tlic |iroj)ose(l incision. A stout, but not too hard, cord of India rubber is tlien wra}>|)cd two or tiirec times about tlie limb, at the upper limit of the banda<j;e, and secured by a single knot, and the bandajze then removed. Care should lie taken not to apply the cord with too much force. When the operation is ended, the cut ends of all the vessels that can be detecte<l should be secured before the cord is removed. After its re- moval, any that escaped.detection are tied, and the oozini; arrested with verv hot or cold water. ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF SURGICAL WOUNDS. Most of the causes of the mortality of surgical operations originate in a prolongation of tlie process of repair and the attendant su})puration. Anything, therefore, which shortens the time occupied by this process, wdiich promotes early union, and prevents or restrains suppuration, adds to the chances of the patient's recovery. Among the jirincipal obstacles to early union may be reckoned the putrefaction of the secretions from the cut surfaces, and their retention, in large or small quantities, within the w^ound. It has been demonstrated that juitrefaction is the result of the presence of livino; vegetable oro-anisms, which are alwavs found in the air, and which act as ferments in liquids capable of l)Utrefaction. The problem then is to rid the w^ound at the end of an oi)eration of all such living ferments and of others capable of producing a s])ecific infection, and to prevent their presence and growth in the discharges while still in contact with the wound. The first method by which it was sought systematically to accomplish these ends was the antiseptic method intro- duced by Prof. Lister, then of Edinburgh, now of London. It has since undergone many modifications in its details, but the original underlying principle is so firmly established that every proposed modification wdl be unhesitatingly judged by its degree of conformity with it. The cardinal points are, 1st, to make and keep the wound surgically clean ; 2d, to provide for the escape of its secre- tions as rajiidly as they form ; 3d, to exert a uniform, mode-