Ten years' surgery in the Kilmarnock Infirmary : being a paper read at the Cambridge meeting of the British Medical Association : with appendix / by John C. M'Vail.
- John McVail
- Date:
- 1881
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Ten years' surgery in the Kilmarnock Infirmary : being a paper read at the Cambridge meeting of the British Medical Association : with appendix / by John C. M'Vail. 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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![Table III.—Secondary Major Amputations. Mr. Lister. Dr. Borland.* No. Recovered. Died. No. Recovered. Died. Thigh, .. . 26 ... 25 . . 1 Tbigh, ... 19 . . 18 ... 1 Leg, .. . 5 ... 5 . . 0 Leg, ... 15 . . 15 ... 0 Ankle, .. . 16 ... 15 . . 1 Ankle, ... 9 . . 8 ... 1 Shoulder, 1 ... 0 . . 1 Foot, ... 5 . . 5 ... 0 Ann, . 6 ... 6 . . 0 Arm, ... 5 . . 5 ... 0 Forearm, 8 ... 8 . . 0 Forearm, 1 . 1 ... 0 Total, .. . 62 ... 59 .. . 3 Total, ... 54 .. . 52 ... 2 Being 4.8 per cent. Being 3.7 per cent. In “ other operations ” (Class vi), the Edinburgh mortality is 3.9 per cent., and the Kilmarnock 1.2. Mr. Lister says that many operations can be treated as out-cases antiseptically, which otherwise would have to stay in hospital. I have tried to exclude from the Kilmarnock list all such, and have thus raised the mortality to 1.8 per cent., still less than half of Mr. Lister’s. Neither in burns nor in abscesses have Mr. Lister’s complete figures been published; so that they must be passed over with the remark, that Dr. Bor- land’s results are very good in both classes. I regret very much that I am unable to give the total number of vertebral abscesses treated by Dr. Borland, as in this class antiseptic treatment is said to be specially successful. But it is very remarkable that here the greatest triumphs of Listerism are obtained in a manner which, if not in actual opposition, stands at least in very doubtful relation to the theory on which the practice is founded. Mr. Lister says : “I have pub- lished numerous cases to show that a great abscess connected with disease of the vertebrae may be opened by free incision, a drainage-tube introduced, strict * See A])penclix, Table III.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22342886_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
