Report of the surgical operations performed at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Infirmary, during a period of seventeen years and a half / by Samuel Fenwick ; by Samuel Fenwick.

  • Fenwick, Samuel, 1821-1902.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the surgical operations performed at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Infirmary, during a period of seventeen years and a half / by Samuel Fenwick ; by Samuel Fenwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    11/67 (page 9)
    TABLE IV. Showino- the Number of Deaths caused by different Diseases after Amputation of the Limbs, their proportion, and the number of Cases which may be expected to Die from each Class of Diseases in every 500 Amputations which may be performed m the Civil Hospitals of Great Britain. No. of Deaths. Proportion to the total number of Deaths. Proportion in 500 Ampu- tations in British Civil Practice. 23 7 4 4 6 21 6 29 20 5 12 1 1 in 6- e 19-71 ^ 34-5 <r 34-5 23- .7 6-57 23- ^ 4-75 6-9 iT 27-6 11-5 » 138- j 27-82 3-89 3-89 1 )■ 80-62 } 12-07 138 Here, then, are a number of diseases following amputation, diflPering both in then* natm^e, in the organs they attack, and in the amount of death they produce. We observe some causmg only one fatal result in eveiy 34 deaths, Avhilst another appears to be the means of termuiating life in one-fourth of the unfortunate cases of the operar- tion. We before observed, that the operators connected with the largest Hospitals, had to lament a considerable number of their patients carried off by death after amputations; and we now see, by glancing over this table, how Httle manual dexterity can influence their success. And, yet, works upon operative surgery are daily written, which detail with the greatest accuracy the formation of flaps, and lay down to a hair's breadth the extent of mcisions, without mentionmg the secondary affections Hable to occur after the operation. Huge dictionaries issue from the press, discussing the rival merits of ancient authorities to some trifling improvement in the method of amputa- ting, but forgetting to lay down rules for the prevention or detection of the many dangerous diseases which so often follow its performance. How many Hospital sui'geons seem to imagine that the necessity for their personal attention to a case of amputation, terminates at the door of the operating theatre, and leave the after treatment to be solely directed by a house sm-geon or a dresser ! How many content themselves with a hunied inspection of the pulse and tongue of the patient, after an am]5utation, instead of exploring the chest, or watching for the first inchcation of phlebitis ; and how many youno- practitioners do we not find, who speak of an amputation as though the interest connected with it ended with the operation, and as though success were certain if the patient sui'mounted the shock, or be un- affected with hemorrhage! These causes of death may be readily classified: thus, 30 out of 138, or 1 m 4-6 died from the shock, in one form or another. In these rases, the death seems to result from the svmpathv of the nervous