Volume 1

A manual of medical treatment or clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo.

  • Isaac Burney Yeo
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical treatment or clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Chap. VI.] Simple Dry Pleurisies. 6oi breathing—are much more likely to be “ latent ”—to pass unobserved—than similar attacks involving the lower and more movable parts of the chest. Scanty fibrinous exudations in the latter situation are commonly attended with the following symptoms ; sharp -pains, or stitch in the side, on inspiration, or on coughing or sneezing; tenderness on pressure over certain ribs or intercostal spaces j shallow, cautious inspiration, the body being usually inclined towards the side affected ] cough may be present or absent; a friction sound, or “ pleuritic rub,” can be heard on examination of the affected side of the chest. We have had occasion to observe that latent adhesive pleuritis in the region of the apices of the lungs, apart from tubercular cases, plays a more im- jjortant part in the causation of some chronic forms of chest affections than is generally recognised.* The treatnieiit of ordinary uncomplicated cases of dry pleurisy, affecting the lower part of the chest and attended by the symptoms mentioned, is simple. If the “ the stitch,” is very severe, and if the temperatui’e is raised two or three degrees, as is frequently the case, a feAv leeches applied to the seat of pain, followed by a hot linseed poultice or a hot compress, is usually very efficacious in giving relief. Some German physicians advocate the local appli- cation of cold (cloths wrung out in ice-cold water) in such cases, but this method is repugnant to many patients, and should the pleuritis have a rheumatic origin it might prove injurious. Limiting the move- ments of the ribs, etc., in breathing by the firm ajjplication of a flannel roller, or a broad band of adhesive plaster, around the base of the chest is valuable. A few small doses of opium in combination with mild salines has an excellent soothing and anodyne • Seo tho author’s paper on “ Pleurisy of the Apex,” British Medical Journal, November 24, 1877.