On the surgery of the knee-joint : and the responsibility placed on the physician and general practitioner by the modern progress of surgery : being the inaugural and retiring presidential addresses delivered before the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society, on October 7th, 1887, and May 4th, 1888, respectively / by C.B. Keetley.

  • Keetley, Charles Bell, 1848-1909.
Date:
[1888]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the surgery of the knee-joint : and the responsibility placed on the physician and general practitioner by the modern progress of surgery : being the inaugural and retiring presidential addresses delivered before the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society, on October 7th, 1887, and May 4th, 1888, respectively / by C.B. Keetley. 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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    after all, only for himself, and for those with whose practice he is personally familiar : it is, therefore, merely a cautious and guarded mode of speaking, and not vain boasting, when I say that I feel less fear now about opening and examining a knee-joint than I felt ten years ago about excising a fatty tumour. Not that I can count excisions of the knee by t e dozen, but because for some years I have been week by week acting on the faith I have just declared, and have found in every bone and every joint, and nearly every cavity of the body, my confidence justified. But I never myself commenced to practise in any department of operative surgery without feeling the disadvantages of inexperience, and being, moreover, shown by the course of events what dangers are run by the patient on whom the surgeon tries his ’prentice hand. For instance, my first case of osteotomy sup- purated and did no good. In only two instances since has a single drop of pus formed, and in these two the ultimate result was excellent and not long delayed. In fact, let us never forget to distinguisi between the dangers of an operation and of the particular operator who does it. It is no longer necessary for the honest surgeon o tell his patient with diseased knee that to sub mi o operation is to run a risk as great as that of fighti g in a forlorn hope. On the contrary, given a patient free from consumption, not hopelessly exhausted an broken down, and not over forty years of age, I can honestly tell him that I can open his knee-joint a either remove the diseased parts, or excise the joint or amputate, according to what may be required