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.

    77/256 (page 53)
    but as the suro-oon's object, iinvtieular]}^ iu ilic case of tlic cav,is to expel the foreign body by thcrcturn curvent of water, it is importaut not to use a syringe witli so large a nozzle as to plug the meatus; and care should bo taken to direct the water down to tlie membrana tympaui, so that the return current maybe as foi'cible as possible. In the case of the nostril, the foreign body may often be conveniently pushed back into the lauces with a probe or small bougie. There is one caution necessary respecting the use of the syringe, which is, that when the foreign body is known to be of a vege- table natui-e, syringing, if used, must be persisted in until the body is removed at the same sitting, lest, if left to another time, the moisture should cause the body to swell, and so impede its ultimate removal. Foreign hodij in larynx produces symptoms of alarming urgency, the patient being often brought to the hospital black in the face and apjjarently moribund. The house-surgeon should immediately thrust his linger down the throat, in order to feel and displace any body, such as a lump of meat, &e., which may be obstructing the glottis ; and if this is not feasible, an opening should be instantly made in the crico-thyi'oid membrane, so as to admit air to the lungs. [Laryngotomy is here recommended instead of tra- cheotomy, because I believe that, in these very urgent cases, the few moments' delay necessary for the per- formance of the latter operation, and particiilarly iu somewhat inexperienced hands, is of the most vital importance ; and besides, these very urgent symptoms are generally found in cases where the foreign body is impacted in the glottis, and has not passed into the trachea at all. Should tracheotomy be subsequently necessary for the extraction of tlie foreign body, the previous operation will be of no importance, and will offer no impediment to its due performance.] The urgent symptoms of sutlbcation having been •thus relieved, aided, it may be, by artilicial respii'ation,