A plea for early operation in cases of undoubted tubercle of the lung : part of the inaugural address to the Chelsea Clinical Society for the session 1899-1900 / by J. Foster Palmer.

Palmer, J. Foster (James Foster)

Date:: [1900]

Credit: A plea for early operation in cases of undoubted tubercle of the lung : part of the inaugural address to the Chelsea Clinical Society for the session 1899-1900 / by J. Foster Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$haemorrhage would be by operating with the electric ecraseur. In the last the electric cautery could be applied after the use of the knife. In all the application of iodoform would be a useful adjunct, both as an antiseptic and a haemostatic. In all operations on the lung the introduction of bacteria from without, through the wound in the chest-wall, can be effectually prevented by modern antiseptic methods. But there is in these cases another channel of entrance for bacteria—viz., the trachea and bronchial tubes. The general experience of internal wounds of the lung where the skin is intact points to the pneumococcus as most to be feared in this direction. Pneumonia is the most frequent complication of rupture of the lung and the wounds caused by fractured ribs, injuries in which the trachea is the only passage for microbes, and which resemble in this respect operations on the lung with the external opening in the chest- wall hermetically sealed. Koyal avenue, S.W. > Printed at the Lancet Office, 423, Strand, W.C.$