Clinical surgical report for the year 1870 / by George Buchanan.

  • George Buchanan
Date:
[1871]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical surgical report for the year 1870 / by George Buchanan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    large abscesses, which under the antiseptic method have come to be interesting surgical manipulations. In looking over the annual statistics, the first point of interest is to examine into the cause of death in the fatal cases, and I shall shortly relate those five in which death followed an operation. 1. Rod. M‘K., aged 24. Admitted with a complete smash of right arm,—-caused by a railway waggon. Also a com¬ minuted fracture, with much contusion, of left humerus ; also, fracture of left clavicle. The injury to the left limb, though on admission simple, was as severe as that to right; but patient would consent only to amputation of the lacer¬ ated one, which was done without hope of success. He died exhausted on the eleventh day after admission. 2. J. M., aged 70. Injured by a railway waggon, the wheels of which passed over his foot, causing complete destruction of it; also, fracture of left ulna ; also, some obscure head injury and bruising of face. The foot, being smashed to a jelly, was amputated at the ankle-joint as he lay in bed. The first night sleep was induced by a large opiate, but in the morning his breath was foetid. He became restless, then delirious, and died four days after. Evidently there were some serious internal injuries, but a post-mortem examination was denied. 3. Ovariotomy in a woman aged 25. Death resulting from peritonitis on the fourth day after operation. 4. Mrs M., aged 55. Excision of mamma for scirrhus,—a remarkable case. Her pulse was naturally feeble, but she seemed as well shortly after the operation as before it. There was no pain in the wound, no haemorrhage or dis¬ charge. But after 24 hours her pulse became fluttering, and she died of syncope in 48 hours. Post-mortem exami¬ nation disclosed the heart in a state of complete fatty degeneration. 5. J. M., aged 20, a miserably cachectic-looking lad, admitted with a sequestrum enclosed in a firm encasement of new bone at lower end of femur. Although very weak, as the debility seemed to be kept up by the constant dis-