A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    36/256 (page 12)
    HAEMORRHAGE. (of necessity tightly applied in the first instance) after a day or two. Perfect rest of the wounded part, and, if possible, an elevated position, ai^e absolutely neces- sary for successful treatment, while at the same time the whole system must be brought into a condition most likely to conduce to tlie formation of clot in the vessel, and tlie rapid granulation of the wound. The constitutional treatment of cases of severe haBmorrhage is one of the most anxious cares of the surgeon. On the one hand, there is the immediate danger of the patient's death from exhaustion, and on the other the fear that by over-stimulation the hajmor- rhage may be again induced with equally dangerous elfect. It is in these cases that opium is of the greatest service. Prom half to one grain, in frequently repeated doses, will do much to calm the patient's nervous system, and mitigate the injurious effects of loss of blood. Stimulants may be cautiously exhibited provided surgical means have been taken to arrest entirely the flow of blood, but where, from the nature of the injury, that has been impossible, it would be destruction to the patient to excite immediately the action of the heart, and thus destroy nature's means of arrest. A previously healthy patient will survive a state approaching syncope for many hours, and ulti- mately make a perfect recovery, while early and inju- dicious stimulation would have hurried him uncon- trollably to the grave. Eeaction after ha;morrhage is not usually of a violent character, but, if necessary, may be treated by gentle purgation and small doses of digitalis; tartar emetic can be but rarely required. Among the debilitated patients one meets with in hos])ital practice, ana3mia is the difficulty which stands in th6 way of recovery from a wound. It is in these cases, when the blood seems scarcely able to coagulate, .and there is a constant oozing from the wounded sur- face,that the preparations of iron infrequent doses have such a hsemostatic effect. Of these the Tinctura Ferri Sesquichloridi seems the best medicine for the pur-