A manual of minor surgery and bandaging : for the use of house-surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners / by Christopher Heath.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging : for the use of house-surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners / by Christopher Heath. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    144/280 (page 120)
    Evaporating dressing.—Tlie advantage of tliis is the constant maintenance of a low temperature in the affected ])art. It is applied in its simj)lcst form by placing a piece of doubled lint upon the wound, and letting the patient or nurse keep it constantly wetted with water or an evaporating lotion. To be of any service, the surface of lint must be fully exposed to the action of the atmo- sphere, a fact which is very commonly ignored, the part being carefully covered with the bed-clothes. Care shovdd be taken to protect the bedding and the rest of the patient's body from getting wetted, by the judicious ap- plication of waterpjroof cloths. Irrigation is a more perfect method of lowering the temperature of a part, and has a du'ect tendency to prevent the occurrence of inflammatory action, provided the application of it be sufficiently prolonged ; for if irrigation be suspended after a short time, the reac- tion will only be all the greater and the inflammation more severe. Irrigation, then, to be of any service, must be continued until all danger of inflammatory reaction is past and the wound has put on a healthy appearance. It may be most simply accomplished by placing a vessel containing water (iced) slightly above the level of the patient's bed, from which a piece of cotton-wick, or skein of worsted, can conduct the fluid after the manner of a syphon, to the afi'ected part. This should be covered with a piece of lint, into wliich the water may soak, and waterproofs should be arranged so as to protect the bed, and also to conduct the water into a suitable receptacle below. The syphon may be formed of gutta-percha or tin tubing, if preferred, or a pipe and stop-cock may be htted to the bottom of a tin can, Avhich is to be sus- pended directly over the injured limb. The same form of apparatus may be used when it is desirable to have a stream of tepid or warm water con- stantly flowing over a part, as in crushes, gangrene, &c. Ointments are to be applied on lint, and should be