On absorbent and antiseptic surgical dressings : a clinical lecture / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Sampson Gamgee
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On absorbent and antiseptic surgical dressings : a clinical lecture / by Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the application of that elastic compression which, with rest and position, is so potent in relieving local congestion and inflammation. That tharapeutic action is most clearly and convincingly demonstrated in cases of injury unaccompanied with wound. In my clinical lectures on the Treatment of Fractures * I have related a case to which I may briefly refer, as it afforded exceptional opportunity for the comparison of two plans of treating intense local congestions. Ellen M'Gawlay was admitted to Ward 5, under my care, after falling a considerable height from a window which she was cleaning. Evaporating lotion was applied constantly to . both feet until I first saw the patient, which was five days after the accident. Both feet were then about equally swollen, the outline of the malleoli quite obliterated, skin deeply mottled as from extravasation of blood. The right heel bone broken across the middle. To the right limb, from the toes to the knee, I applied a compressing immo- vable apparatus, constructed with cotton wool, moistened pasteboard, and bandage. The left foot, which was equally swollen, but less injured since it had no fracture, was con- tinuously treated with evaporating lotion. The effect of pressure in relieving pain and reducing the swelling was immediate and continuous. In 48 hours the outline of the right ankle was perfect, while the swelling of the left one was undiminished. Both feet eventually regained their shape and function, but it was only by very slow degrees that the swelling decreased in the left foot, which had not been immobilized and compressed. In last month's Practitioner I gave an account of a case which most of you will remember as having been under treatment a few weeks previously in our detached wards. The man had earned his living as a hawker, and been * Churcliill, London, 1871, p, 85.
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