Volume 2

Observations on aneurism selected from the works of the principal writers on that disease from the earliest periods to the close of the last century / Translated and edited by John E. Erichsen.

  • John Eric Erichsen
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on aneurism selected from the works of the principal writers on that disease from the earliest periods to the close of the last century / Translated and edited by John E. Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    perature of which was diminished, and the pulse also was weaker. 1797. At noon the bleeding recurred with violence, but was immedi- —~— ately checked by the pupil in attendance. I went directly to the patient, removed the dressings, and cleared out the wound, in the hope of finding the opening in the artery, or the point from which the blood escaped. My hopes were disappointed, not a drop appeared. The patient was now exhausted, and I could no longer count upon compression, I therefore determined upon having recourse to the ligature of reserve, in the hope that it might be so placed as to be of service; but as soon as the artery was tied the bleeding burst forth impetuously. It was easy to perceive that the ligature had been placed below the wound in the vessel, which I could not see; this was, however, so far an advantage to me, that it enabled me to find out whence the blood escaped. The hemorrhage being then stopped by compression on the ax- ilary artery, a ligature was passed under the vessel, and the course of the blood entirely arrested. The patient immediately lost all sensation and heat in the limb. The quantity of blood lost during this operation did not amount to more than two or three spoonfuls, but the patient was already quite exhausted. Half an hour afterwards he had a fainting fit. Some minutes after this again he recovered consciousness, but a storm, accom- panied by several claps of thunder, which now came on, made such an impression upon him in the critical condition in which he was, that he died three hours after the operation. On opening the body, MM. Sabatier, Boyer, and I found that the brachial artery had been wounded in a longitudinal direction, at its external and posterior aspect, to the extent of two lines, opposite the inferior border of the tendon of the pec- toralis major, and above the origin of the superior profunda arteries ; that the ligature of reserve had been placed about four or five lines below the opening, and that the upper one was about fives lines above. II.* Wound of the femoral artery. On the 9th of May 1791, a joiner wounded the femoral artery at the inferior third ' [The Editor has condensed this case, which occupies ten octavo pages in the original; for although it is one of considerable interest, yet it is somewhat foreign to the subject of aneurism. ]