Surgical appliances and minor operative surgery / by Thomas Annandale.

Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical appliances and minor operative surgery / by Thomas Annandale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    105/264 page 93
    liietects a foreign body, remove it. Even if the patient ks apparently dead, this ought to be done; and, if a irbreign body be discovered and removed, artificial respi- I -ation should be kept up for some time. If the foreign n>ody cannot be immediately removed, and the patient |vs suffocating, a knife should be plunged through [she crico-thyroid membrari*e, or into the trachea. Pins, needles, fish-bones, and other sharp bodies are [occasionally entangled in the fauces, soft palate, or )h;irynx, and give rise to unpleasant tickling or cough. [\Very frequently, too, patients apply for advice, under Rthe impression that something is sticking in the throat, jvwhen, in reality, their symptoms merely depend upon ithe sensation left by a prick or wound of such a body vwhich has passed down the throat. The treatment of 'these accidents is, to search the throat carefully with tiir fingers, or with the oesophagus forceps, and, if any fforeign body be detected, to extract it. The oesophagus fforceps is a most useful instrument in treating all cases ►f lodgment of foreign bodies in the pharynx or oeso- ]phagus ; and I have, therefore, represented a pair, at ifig. 38, grasping a foreign body. The blades of these t forceps should open laterally. Fig. 38. Pieces of food, coins, artificial teeth, bones, and other irregular bodies occasionallv become lodged in tin oesophagus, and may produce symptoms of suffoca- tion, by pressing upon the larynx or trachea, or diffi- culty in swallowing. When the body is soft or smooth ftnd regular, it is not so likely to injure the walls of the oesophagus, and, therefore, it may be pushed down towards the stomach by means of an oesophagus bougie or tube; but when it is sharp or irregular, it may
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3