Sudden death / by Herbert French.

  • French, Herbert Stanley, 1875-1951.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sudden death / by Herbert French. 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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    of it; secondly, those in which the symptoms H and signs have led to a correct diagnosis of aneurysm previous to death; and thirdly, those in which, although the aneurysm has given rise.^ to symptoms and signs, the latter have been ^ intex'preted as due to something else than' aneurysm; in other words, the diagnosis has, been wrong. Should the aneurysm rupture, thej occurrence is a complete surprise in groups onel and three, though it would have been anticipated] in group two. I wisn you to realise that aneurj^sms of thej aorta are very variable in size. When they are] as big as Tangerine oranges, or larger still, there, may he a definite pulsatile tumour which cannot! he mistaken; and besides this, the abnormal ^ mass may compress different structures in thej neighbourhood, and thus give rise to various' pressure symptoms, such as those which result :jj from obstruction to a bronchus or to the oeso-)r phagus, or to the trachea, or to interference with and degeneration of nerves such as the left. recurrent laryngeal, the left cervical sympathetic, or the brachial plexus, so that, in addition toj*' pain, there may be changes in the voice, in- ; equality of the pupils, or atrophy of some of ! the muscles of the shoulder and upper arm. Iti is important to realise, however, that an aorticfl aneurysm may be so small that you may notfi know it is there. You may pass a man for; life assurance one day and he may die next day| from the rupture of an aneurysm that wasijj entirely unsuspected. This is a case of sudden y| death in an apparently sound person, and there- fore a much more striking occurrence than is the sudden ending there may be in a case of' aneurysm that has already been diagnosed from symptoms or pressure signs. The commonest