A treatise on the diseases and injuries of the larynx and trachea : founded on the essay to which was adjudged the Jacksonian prize for 1835 / by Frederick Ryland.

  • Ryland, Frederick (Surgeon)
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases and injuries of the larynx and trachea : founded on the essay to which was adjudged the Jacksonian prize for 1835 / by Frederick Ryland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    enough to project it fai-, and, consequently, at every inspiration it is sucked again into the trachea, producing in time all the symp- toms of impeded respiration, and causing the patient to sink into an alarming state of debility. Mr. Porter,* in two instances, when the patients were almost suffocated with the mucus, strug- gling for breath, and so debilitated as to be unable to assist them- selves, has seen an assistant put his lips to the wound and empty the trachea by suction : but this is so disgusting an operation, that few would have zeal enough to undertake it; and happily the same results may be produced most commonly by the application of a syringe to the opening in the trachea, and the removal of the mucus by its means. The artificial cough effected in the manner described in the last page appears, from the statements of Dr. Cullen and Mr. Craigie,-]- to assist most powerfully in expelling the mucus from the bronchi, and in facilitating I'cspiration. In a patient of Dr. Cullen's the la- rjTix had been opened for a suicidal purpose, and inflammation of the bronchial membrane had taken place afterwards ; the accumu- lation of mucus in the air-tubes was exceedingly great and could not be expelled; the extremities became cold, the lips livid, and the pulse hardly perceptible ; the respiration rare, difficult, and ac- companied with a frightful rattle in the bronchi. The patient was desired to cough, but could not till Dr. Cullen placed his fin- ger on the artificial opening in the larynx ; she then coughed rea- dily enough, and brought up some very tenacious mucus, by the excretion of which the respiration was greatly improved, and the lips and expression of the countenance became natural. Ultimate- ly she died of suffocation from the accumulation of the mucus. In Mr. Craigie's case the trachea was opened, to prevent suffocation from the effects of cynancho tonsillaris ; relief followed the opera- tion, but in an hour after, mucus accumulated to such an extent as nearly to choke the patient, and it could only be expelled from the Pathology of the Larynx, p. 2C5. •f Edinburgh Medical Journal, vol. xxix. TT