Black's medical dictionary / by John D. Comrie.

  • John Comrie
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Black's medical dictionary / by John D. Comrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/1070 page 4
    ABDOMEN, REGIONS OF ABSCESS and this is due to shock (see Shock) caused by injury to a nerve - plexus situated in the back of the abdomen in that region. Rupture of the liver or kidney may occur with great haemor¬ rhage into the surrounding tissues from severe crushes between railway-carriage buffers, from falls from a height, motor¬ car accidents, etc. ; but these are not necessarily fatal unless some large blood-vessel be torn. Rupture of the bowel occasionally follows a blow or wound and is almost necessarily fatal in a few days, unless the abdomen be opened by a surgeon and the torn bowel stitched within a few hours of the accident. Persons run over by carts or cars are liable to have the bladder ruptured. This occurs especially in the case of children, and it happens only when the bladder is full, or nearly so, of urine. In such a case the inability to pass water soon after the accident, supposing that it was not passed for some hours previ¬ ously, or the passage of blood, indicates the necessity of a speedy operation to stitch the torn bladder. Straining to lift a weight beyond the strength, or excessive straining at stool, may force a loop of the intestine through the muscular part of the abdominal wall, so producing a hernia or rupture. Though there is often a feeling that something has given way, or even the noise of a crack, there is, as a rule, no immediate danger, the bowel going back into the abdomen again, but leav¬ ing the abdominal wall permanently damaged. (See Hernia.) ABDOMEN, REGIONS OF.—For convenience of reference the abdomen is divided into regions by artificial lines. Two are vertical, passing through the middle of Poupart's (inguinal) liga¬ ment, a band which crosses the groin obliquely and divides thigh from ab¬ domen ; and two are horizontal, one half¬ way between top of breast-bone and of pubis, the other at the most outwardly projecting points of the iliac or haunch bones. These divide off nine regions named as follows : Epigastrium or pit of the stomach (E), two Hypochondriac regions (He), Umbilical or Navel region (U), two Lumbar or Loin regions (L), Hypogastric region (H), and two Iliac regions or Groins (I) (see diagram). The 4 inguinal region on each side is the lower and outer part of the hypogastric. Fig. 2.—Abdomen mapped out in regions. For meanings of the letters see text. The outline of the recti muscles and of their tendinous divisions is also shown. This contains the inguinal canal which pierces the abdominal wall obliquely. ABDUCENT NERVE (abducens) is the sixth nerve rising from the brain and controls the external rectus muscle of the eye, which turns the eye out¬ wards. It is particularly liable to be paralysed in diseases of the nervous system, thus leading to an inward squint. ABORTION (see Miscarriage). ABRASION means the rubbing off of the surface of the skin or of a mucous membrane due to some mechanical injury. Such injuries, though slight in themselves, are very apt to allow entrance of dirt containing organisms and so to lead to an abscess or some severer form of inflammation. Treatment.—The most effective form of treatment consists in painting over the abrasion at once with some astrin¬ gent and antiseptic fluid such as tincture of iodine or strong spirit. Abrasions on mucous membranes are best covered by some protective application such as glycerin of boracic acid. ABSCESS (abscessus) is a localised collection of pus or matter. A minute abscess is known as a pustule (see Pustule), a diffused production of pus
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