A probationary essay on amputation in cases of external injury : submitted ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / by Alexander Watson.

  • Watson, Alexander, 1799-1879.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay on amputation in cases of external injury : submitted ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / by Alexander Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 when high up, or when the fracture is above its middle, and if it is much splintered or shattered,* as this is the only chance the patient has for life ; and more particularly, if any other important part is injured. 2. When the head and neck of the thigh bone are shat¬ tered by a gun-shot. 3. “ When a musket bullet or grape shot, or small portion of shell has been observed to fracture the neck or head of the thigh bone, and pass through or lodge in the hip joint. Section Second. Of Amputation at the Thigh. Compound fractures of the thigh bone are always consider¬ ed extremely dangerous, particularly those by which the bone is shattered; they are therefore among the most common cases of injury which demand immediate Amputation. Mr^John Bell, in treating of gun-shot fractures, says, “when the bone is the largest in the body, and covered with a great thickness of flesh, as in the thigh, there is a very extensive de¬ struction of parts; the mass of disease is very great, and if the patient escape Gangrene in the first days of the wound, he generally perishes afterwards from the fever, the incessant suf¬ fering, and the profuse discharge.”;]: In the small number of favourable cases that have recover¬ ed from this injury, the patients have only saved useless iimbs^ after a very tedious and painful cure. * Thomson, Guthrie, Larrey, &c. f Thomson. * t Principles of Snrgery, vol. I.