The surgery of the head and neck / by Levi Cooper Lane.

  • Levi Cooper Lane
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The surgery of the head and neck / by Levi Cooper Lane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    isliould be pressed on Avitli the fingers, so as to immobilize these l>cirts and the uniting wound contained in them. The union will now often be found complete; yet should there be seen any indi- cations of suppuration, then vaseline (petroleum gelatum) con- taining four per cent of carbolic acid, should be used as dressing; thus an outlet will be furnished for any purulent material. If proper care has been taken in the work, in most cases union will be found complete at the first dressing when the sutures are removed, viz., on the third or fourth day. The site of the wound should afterwards be protected from violence or irregular move- ment for a few days: otherwise it might be reopened. Besides closure by wire, the work may also be done with cat- gut suture, which has the advantage that it vanishes by absor])- tion, and does not require extraction, as must be done with wire; yet absorption sometimes occurs before firm union is estfiblished, and then some gaping occurs. Catgut should be u.sed where there is no tension of the parts. Another method of closing wounds situated in the hairy scalp is by means of the hair itself. The advantage of this plan is that healing is accomplished without shaving the hair, and one avoids the conspicuous mark resulting from such shaving. To close the wound in this way, commence at one end of it by placing a thread in or alongside of the wound, and then isolate a lock of hair on each side and lay this over the thread across tiie wound. Xext the locks held accurately are included in a half knot, each lock is next to be tlirned back towards its own side, when the two are to be held in place by completing the knot. Tlie work is to be continued by a series of knotted loops, so as to wholh' close the wound. The wound being thus united, the part should be washed with undiluted alcohol, and then covered with dry lint or cotton wadding. This plan of closing wounds was prac- ticed by Dr. Garwood, formerly physician to the City and County Hospital of San Francisco. The striking advantages of it are that no sutures are used, and the tied liair may remain undis- turljed until the healing of the wound is wholly completed; and when this has occurred, then the threads may be cut and removed, and scarcely any trace of the ju-evious injury will be visible. Lacerated Wounds.—Lacerated wounds of the scalp are next to be considered. These injuries may originate in two ways: in the one case, they may arise from blows from some blunt object; and then, if the causal instrument be but slightly blunt, the wound
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