The after-treatment of cases of abdominal section / by Christopher Martin.

  • Martin, Christopher
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The after-treatment of cases of abdominal section / by Christopher Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tion the skin of the abdomen must be thoroughly cleansed with turpentine followed by the free use of soap and hot water. At the same time the nurse should wash out the vagina. The surgeon brings his own instruments, sponges, and dressings. The medical attendant, however, must provide or rig up an extempore operating table. A narrow kitchen table answers very well, or two dressing tables, placed one at right angles to the other (in the form of a letter T) may be used. At the Hospital for Women, and also in Mr. Lawson Tait's private hospital, a simple board supported on two tressels is found to answer all purposes; it is of the simplest possible construction, is easily kept clean, and is readily moved from room to room. It is to be covered with a folded blanket and over this a sheet of mackintosh. He must also see that there is a copious supply of hot and cold clean water, plenty of basins and towels, and half a dozen hot water bottles. The patient must have on h6r stockings, her night-dress, and a warm bed-jacket. All being ready, the catheter is passed (and it must be absolutely certain that there is an emply bladder), the patient's denture is removed, and the anaesthetic commenced. She must be anaesthetised in her bed—not on the operating table. For the great majority of cases the best anaesthetic is a mixture of two parts of ether and one ot chloroform given with Clover's inhaler. But for patients who are under fifteen or over fifty, or who have renal disease, or who are bronchitic, pure chloroform administered on a towel is preferable. The bron- chitis which ether is apt to cause is a serious complication after an abdominal section, and the suspension of the functions of the kidney involved in its use renders it dangerous in renal surgery. Mr. Lawson Tait pointed out years ago that, in the human being at any rate, ether stops the secretion of urine during the period of anaesthesia. Chloroform on the other hand has no such baneful action. The Operation.—As soon as the patient is unconscious, the operating table, the trays of instruments, the basins, and sponges, are brought into the room and arranged as the surgeon
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