Iodine as a dressing for operation wounds / by Frank Cole Madden.

  • Madden, Frank Cole, 1873-1929.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Iodine as a dressing for operation wounds / by Frank Cole Madden. 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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    Reprinted from the British Medical Journal, September 28th, 1912. IODINE AS A DRESSING FOR OPERATION WOUNDS. BY FRANK COLE MADDEN, M.D.Melb., F.R.C.S.Eng., PROFESSOR OP SURGERY, EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE ; SENIOR SURGEON, KASR-EL-AINY HOSPITAL, CAIRO, My experience of iodine as a first dressing for recent cases of lacerated, and particularly dirty, wounds, having been decidedly happy, and the preparation of cases for opera- tion by the same solution now being my routine practice, I was naturally much interested in the perusal of Mr. Reginald Alcock’s address, published in the British Medical Journal of February 3rd, 1912, on iodine as the sole dressing for operation wounds. I had already adopted the practice of painting wounds with iodine at the conclusion of the operation before applying the dressings, and had even tried—with much misgiving be it said—leaving them entirely without dress- ing, especially in children; but it is only during the last two months that I have taken my courage in both hands, with Mr. Alcock’s experience to guide me, and in every possible case, both in hospital and private practice, used iodine as the sole dressing, with the most satisfactory results. It appeared to me that working, as one does, on some of the dirtiest skins possible to imagine—those of the Egyptian fellah—the method would have an opportunity of justifying itself, and proving the claims so eloquently put forward on its behalf; and I must admit at once that it has completely established its position. Before I began the preparation of operation cases with iodine—a practice which all my colleagues have now adopted—I was accustomed to dress my cases with a piece of sterilized gauze fixed with collodion ; but I found that with iodine-prepared catgut the results were not always altogether satisfactory, as some superficial redness or even blistering occurred from time to time, due, I thought, to an antagonism between the collodion and the iodine. I there- fore stopped the collodion and substituted ordinary [350/12]