Volume 2

Elements of surgery / by Robert Liston.

  • Liston, Robert, 1794-1847.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of surgery / by Robert Liston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    333/350 (page 323)
    In the chronic cases of bursal enlargement, pres- sure is to be avoided ; and by the permanent appli- cation of a gum and mercurial plaster (emplastri gummosi—emp. hydrargyri—a part, seq.) absorp- tion of the fluid may in general be procured—the swelling disappearing as gradually as it arose. If the collection is large and obstinate, repeated blister- ing may be had recourse to ; and if that fail, a seton may be passed through the cavity. But the last men- tioned practice is sometimes followed by more action than is desirable, inflammation of the surrounding cellular tissue supervening, and abscesses forming, perhaps extensive. When the collection is purulent, a free opening is to be made into the bursa, and the case treated in other respects as a common abscess. If indolent swelling of the cellular tissue, and spongy thickening of the synovial surface of the bursa, re- main after incision, the caustic potass should be ap- plied. In extensive and acute inflammation spread- ing to the surrounding parts, free incisions are re- quired, along with proper constitutional treatment. Venesection, at the bend of the arm, is too often resorted to by thoughtless or ill-educated practitioners, to the detriment of the patient; as after accidents before reaction has occurred, in local pains not in- flammatory, &c. It is had recourse to by those who have no correct ideas of the actions of the animal economy, who have not within their heads a peg to hang an idea upon ; or if they have, they are too lazy to think and to combine their ideas, so as to