Diseases of the nose and throat : a text-book for students and practitioners.

  • Ivins, Horace F.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the nose and throat : a text-book for students and practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Various Conditions. FOREIGN BODIES IN THE LARYNX. The most frequent example of this accident is when food goes the wrong way; tliat is, enters the larynx instead of the oesophagus. The resultant spasm is slight, and, as it is usually a simple matter to dislodge the intruder by coughing, further consideration is unnecessary. Objects less soft and smooth, how- ever, cannot be so readily expelled. Thus, a sharp point will penetrate the soft tissues and occasion more or less irritation, pain, inflammation, and swelling. Symptoms.—The symptoms which arise as a result of the accidental entrance of foreign bodies into the larynx vary from slight, momentary spasm to instant death, depending upon the size and position of the body, the irritability of the parts, and the previous condition of the patient. The secondary laryngeal results may be inflammation, oedema, abscess formation, ulcera- tion, perichondritis, or fatal stenosis. The trachea, bronchi, or lungs may sufler either secondarily or from the direct passage of the foreign body through the glottis to the deeper parts. The objects most likely to lodge in the larynx are pins and needles; fish-bones ; splinters ; bristles of tooth-brushes ; pieces of clam- and oyster- shells ; beards of rye, oats, and wheat; small bones; pieces of metal, solder, etc. Treatment.—The intruder should be removed at once, where possible. For this purpose many devices liave been practiced ; perhaps the oldest is to strike the patient U])on tlie back with the palm of the hand. This may serve to dislodge the object, and the cough which follows may expel it; the same result may follow if the head be tlirown quickly forward. Sud- denly reversing the body sometimes has the desired eftect.