Observations on aneurism : and its treatment by compression / O'Bryen Bellingham.

  • Bellingham, O'Bryen, 1805-1877.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on aneurism : and its treatment by compression / O'Bryen Bellingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    therefore, merely quote the remarks I made upon that occasion bearing upon the theory on which compression effects the cure of aneurism, and on the degree of pressure necessary to bring about this result, in order that they may be contrasted with the opinions I have quoted from the writings of others upon this subject, We shall afterwards see how far the principles then laid down are correct, and how far the observations then made, have been borne out by subsequent pathological investigations. Surgical writers appear to have been under the impres- sion, that in order to cure an aneurism by compressing the artery above the tumour, it was essential to interrupt completely the current of blood through the vessel—in fact, to apply such pressure as would act like a ligature, cause inflammation of the coats of the artery at the part, and obliterate the circulation in the vessel at the point to which compression had been applied. When it was considered absolutely necessary for the success of compression, that such an amount of pressure should be applied as was almost certain to produce sloughing of the part, and very certain to occasion intense pain and suffering; and when, in addition, this was to be prolonged through five successive nights and days, [as in the case reported by Mr. Guthrie which I had quoted,] we can readily understand why patients refused to submit to it, and we can easily account for the disrepute into which the practice fell, and for the unwillingness of surgeons to adopt this treatment, in preference to the simple opera- tion of placing a ligature upon the femoral artery. It would, however, appear that it is not at all essential the circulation through the vessel leading to the aneurism should be completely checked, but rather the contrary: it may, perhaps, be advantageous at first, for a short period, by which the collateral circulation will be more certainly established j but the result of this case, if it does no more,