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.

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    H/'EMOllRIIAGE. limb for some distfrnce bcloAv the woimd, sliould be applied tightly over the pad, and tlien be carried a short distance above the wound, additional pads being placed, if considered necessary, along tlie course of the principal arteries, so as to exert pressure upon them. Should bleeding again occur, (jraduatedi^resmrc may be used in the following way :—The main artery being held as above described, the wound is to b(^ laid open, and a small pledget of folded lint placed at the bottom ; on this another pledget, rather larger, and so on until the lint is an inch thick above the skin, pressure with a bandage being then exerted on the whole, with the ;;arae precautions as before. The dis- advantage of this otherwise very eflective method is, that the woinid must necessarily be allowed to granu- late from the bottom, thus occupying a longer time in healing, and leaving a larger scar. The position of the limb after the application of pressure is of the greatest importance : thus the hand should be raised by a sling to the opposite shoulder so as to flex the elbow, while the foot and leg should be su])ported above the level of the body by means of pillows. (It is never sufficient simply to tell a patient to keep a wounded or inflamed arm in a sling, for the limb is then generally allowed to hang down, but the surgeon should himself see that the hand is raised to the opposite shoulder.) The above directions are only applicable to wounds involving the smaller arteries of the limbs. In cases of injury of the main trunks, the profuse ha;morrhage should be instantly controlled by pressure of the finger upon the artery above the wound, until a tourniquet can be applied, which, although it arrests the rush of arterial blood, will very probably still leave a strong current of dark-coloured blood ebbing out of the wound. This blood, which may come from the lower end of the wounded artery, from the vein, or from both, - will be immediately controlled by another tourniquet