Account of a case of empyema, which recovered after repeated punctures of the pleural sac / [Theophilus Thompson].

  • Thompson, Theophilus, 1807-1860
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a case of empyema, which recovered after repeated punctures of the pleural sac / [Theophilus Thompson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The respiratory murmur on this side was deficient, and the sound elicited by percussion dull. Leeches and a blister had been applied, and a course of calo¬ mel adopted, but without any satisfactory result. When I first saw the patient, on the 25th of June, I found him much reduced in flesh and strength, lying on the right sid§, breathing rapidly, with a hot skin, quick pulse, much thirst, and scanty urine. On admeasurement, this side was found about an inch larger than the left: its intercostal spaces pro¬ minent, the sound yielded by percussion dull, and the respiratory murmur inaudible almost as high as the clavicle. Mercurial ointment, quinine, and de¬ coction of chimaphila, were tried for a few days. On the 27th, the urine was slightly increased in quantity, but the effusion into the chest was appa¬ rently greater, the respiration rapid, and the strength declining. The apex of the heart was felt beating beyond the line of the nipple, and the effusion was obviously too considerable to authorize any expecta¬ tion of its being absorbed through the influence of medicine. With a view to obtain an absolute demonstration of its existence and nature, an exploratory needle was introduced into the side at the most prominent part; and pus having been observed in the groove of the instrument, the operation of paracentesis was at once performed. An incision was first made through the stretched skin, in order to secure a valvular aperture; a hydro¬ cele trochar was then introduced through the fourth