Volume 1

The science and art of surgery : a treatise on surgical injuries, diseases, and operations / by John Eric Erichsen.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The science and art of surgery : a treatise on surgical injuries, diseases, and operations / by John Eric Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    76/1272 (page 44)
    Where the tissues are very lax beneath the fascia, it is often a convenient plan to guide a probe-pointed bistoury on tlie forefinger of the left hand, instead of using a director. The finger is the best director when it can be used, as it can be guided more or less by sensation. Occasionally in deepening a wound through very loose structures, amongst which important vessels may lie, as in removing tumours from the root of the neck or the axilla, the Surgeon may prefer to make use of a blunt instrument, and to tear the tissues instead of Fig. 7.—Dissection through a fascia. S])oiicer Wells's forceps on a bleeding vessel. Blunt liook.s liokling open tlie superllcial wound. cutting them. With this view he may use two pairs of forceps, or one pair of forceps and a director, or the handle of the scalpel. He must not, however, be templed to use these forcibly or rashly, as by so doing much mischief may be produced. He must work methodically, picking up what he intends to tear with the forceps, and being careful to tear only wdiat he has thus seized. In some cases a properly cultivated finger-nail or thumb-nail will be found a most useful instrument. PREVENTION OP HEMORRHAGE DURING OPERATIONS. In every operation involving the use of the knife, loss of blood is the primary danger to be guarded against. This may be prevented most con- veniently in the extremities by the use of the tourniquet or the elastic band, or by an assistant compressing the main artery of the limb. If the seat of the operation be such as not to admit of this, the assistant may compress the bleeding vessels as they arc divided during the operation ; and as soon as it is