Case of fatal hemorrhage from perforation of the aorta by false teeth impacted in the oesophagus / [James Duncan].

  • James Duncan
Date:
1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of fatal hemorrhage from perforation of the aorta by false teeth impacted in the oesophagus / [James Duncan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the same work as recorded by Dumoustier: I append another as related by M. Begin, Surgeon Major at the Val-de-Grace. “ A soldier, while eating his soup, swallowed a piece of bone, which stuck in the oesophagus. Attempts to push it on towards the stomach were made, and seemed to be successful. Soft and liquid food could now be taken without difficulty, and a probang, upon being introduced, readily reached the stomach. The patient seemed to labour under no further inconvenience. He left the hospital, but in the course of a month he returned again, complaining of a sharp pain in the left side of the neck. By the employment of antiphlogistics his ailment was removed, and he left the hospital once more. The pain, however, which never entirely left him, except for short intervals, became again severe; the patient returned for the third time to the hospital, not, indeed, for the particular accident in question, but for a gonorrhoea which he had contracted. Every thing seemed to be going on well, when he suddenly threw up large quantities of blood, perhaps to the amount of seven pounds. The hemor¬ rhage presently ceased, but the next day it returned, and proved fatal. On examining the body, there were found in the oesopha¬ gus, about its upper third part, two parallel ulcerations ; that on the right side nine lines in breadth, and that on the left twelve. Opposite the latter there was an adhesion between the oesopha¬ gus and the corresponding part of the carotid. In this vessel, moreover, erosion had produced a small opening, about a line in diameter, which proved to be the source of the hemorrhage.” Guthrie relates a case, in his work on the arteries, in which both carotids were wounded from swallowing pins, a soldier having done so in order to get his drill-sergeant into a scrape. Another is related by Mr Bell of Barrhead, in the Medical Gazette, February 10, 1843, in which the right carotid was perforated by a needle, which had been accidentally swallowed. The pulmonary artery has been wounded, in one case com¬ municated by M. Bernast of the Toulon Hospital to M. Begin. “ A young soldier thought he felt, while eating soup, that he had swallowed a sharp bone, or a pin; consequent to which lie experienced a pungent, lancinating, and occasionally insupport¬ able pain. On entering the hospital, lie was treated with an¬ tiphlogistics, but without success; the pain increased, and kept the unfortunate patient in restless misery. Nausea at length supervened, and he threw up some ounces of blood. Eventu¬ ally be was seized with convulsions, and be died on the eighth
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