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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    desires. The patient is lifted on to the table, her legs and hands secured to it with straps, her chest and legs covered with blankets and the operation proceeded with. During the opera- tion the patient's bed must be made warm for her return by means of a row of hot-water bottles wrapped in a folded blanket. The operation over, the patient is made clean and dry, and the wound dressed. She should then be got back to bed as speedily as possible. The hot water bottles are to be moved aside, and the patient wrapped in the warmed blanket. The hot bottles are then packed around her outside the blanket. Before she awakes, the operating table, the instruments, and all the dread paraphernalia of the surgeon must be removed, and the room restored to its wonted aspect. And now the after-treatment proper begins. For at least five days she must be absolutely secluded from all her friends, no one save the nurse and medical attendant being allowed to enter the room. Unless this rule be rigidly enforced, there will be endless annoyance and interference. Indeed the friends always give far more trouble than does the patient herself. TREATMENT OF A SIMPLE CASE. Let us suppose that the case is an uncomplicated ovariotomy, that the patient is young and strong, that the tumour was non- adherent and had an excellent pedicle and that no drainage tube was required. The less such a case is interfered with the better. The dressings—These should be of the simplest character. The wound is carefully dried, and may be dusted with a little powdered boric acid. A pad of absorbent ('Gamgee') tissue is laid over the wound, and secured with two strips of sticking plaster. Over all an abdominal binder is pinned. The pad is changed as soon as it becomes soiled. Such a dressing is all that is necessary until about the sixth day, when the stitches should be removed. After this the wound may be dressed with zinc ointment spread on a strip of lint. The Biadder.—The nurse must take care that the bladder
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