Lectures on the American eclectic system of surgery / by Benjamin L. Hill.

  • Hill, B. L. (Benjamin L.)
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the American eclectic system of surgery / by Benjamin L. Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    near the anterior surface of the former, from one to two inches above the internal malleolus, and carried through to the skin on the opposite side. The edge is then turned upon the Fig. 104. tendon, and while an assistant, or the surgeon, with his left hand bends the foot in such a manner as to put the contracted muscle firmly on the stretch, he cuts steadily through the ten- don. It will separate with a crackling noise. The space between the divided ends of the tendon will be filled up with coagulable lymph, which eventually becomes firm and serves as a tendon. The tendon of \h.e postcrioi' tibial muscle is most readily divided about two inches behind and above the internal malleolus. The principles of operation are the same. In this case care must be taken not to cut the posterior tibial artery and nerve, which might be wounded if the incision were carried too deeply. The tendon of the anterioi- tibial muscle must be cut where it passes over the ankle joint. The jlexor of the great toe is most conveniently divided on the sole of the foot. It may be seen and felt projecting like a strong cord. After the operation, the limb should be placed in an easy position, and the patient kept quiet. A strip of adhesive plas- ter is to be placed over the external wound, and it healed by the first intention. In these operations there will be but a few drops of blood, unless an artery be cut, of which there need be no danger, and cannot be in the first, and last two, cases named. After three or four days, or as soon as the state of the limb will admit, it should be placed in a proper machine for extending the foot and fixing it in its proper situation. [As the operation for strabismus is similar in principle to this of talipes, and eye-operations form a distinct class, I will now proceed to them, before taking up others on the head and trunk. Myotomy being a modern operation, has been for a time all the rage,—for instances of this muscle-cutting gone mad, see page 417, and Flint's Druitt, page 391, with the edi- tor's note, page 329.]