The surgery of oral diseases and malformations : their diagnosis and treatment / by George Van Ingen Brown.

  • Brown, George van Ingen, 1861-1948.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The surgery of oral diseases and malformations : their diagnosis and treatment / by George Van Ingen Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/792 (page 49)
    After-treatment.—The patient should be covered with warm blankets and protected against chilling of the body when he is taken from the operating room to the bed, which should pre- viously have been warmed with hot water bottles. lie is then wrapped in warmed woollen blankets and the bodily temperature is maintained with water bottles, with, of course, protection to prevent burning the body during unconsciousness. Normal salt solution, a pint by the rectum, containing whisky or coffee, serves to restore circulatory conditions and to supply lost fluid in the circulation. It is soothing, tends to reduce the thirst for water, aiul favors normal reaction in every wav. Quiet, restful surround- ings and encouraging assurance that all is well with the first signs of returning consciousness often serve to reduce excitement and favor rest and recovery. Of all the many drugs that have from time to time been recom- mended, the hypodermic injection of strychnine appears to H. P. Cole‘ to find favor among the greatest number of surgeons (46 per cent.), but those in opposition to its use hold that under some circumstances strychnine rather aggravates than improves the condition in shock.^ Bandaging.—A firm bandage about the abdomen or bandaging the extremities, or Crile’s pneumatic suit, may be employed to equalize the circidation and temporarily assist the heart. Except when contraindicated, the patient should be kept with the head low during recovery ancl the face turned upon one side to prevent inspiration of the blood or mucus. Additional advantage in a weakened state may be gained by raising the foot of the bed so that the body inclines with the head slightly downward. (’are should be taken that normal salt solution given by the rectum is maintained at a sufficiently high temperature. Murphy has ])roved that ordinarily a loss of several degrees occurs by the time the salt reaches the colon. Some one of the many forms of keeping the solution hot must be used, otherwise the effect may be to decrease rather than increase bodily temperature. The salt .solution is best administered by the dro]) method, slowly, taking. 4 ' .Soutlicm Mc-dical .Journal, June, 190!). 2J. e. L. Mummery, Lunetd, April, 1905,