A Manual of the Operations of Surgery: For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior PractitionersBell, Joseph
Science
A Manual of the Operations of Surgery: For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners
Bell, Joseph
Surgery, Operative
"Having extracted one of the front incisors, I cut through the middle of
the lip and continued the incision down to the os hyoides, then sawed
through the jaw in the same line, and insinuating my finger under the
tongue as a guide to the knife, divided the mucous lining of the mouth,
together with the attachment of the genio-hyoglossi. While the two
halves of the bone were held apart, I dissected backwards, and cut
through the hyoglossi, along with the mucous membrane covering them, so
as to allow the tongue to be pulled forward, and bring into view the
situation of the lingual arteries, which were cut and tied, first on one
side, and then on the other. The process might now have been at once
completed, had I not feared that the epiglottis might be implicated in
the disease, which extended beyond the reach of my finger, and thus
suffer injury from the knife if used without a guide. I therefore cut
away about two-thirds of the tongue, and then being able to reach the os
hyoides with my finger, retained it there while the remaining
attachments were divided by the knife in my other hand close to the
bone. Some small arterial branches having been tied, the edges of the
wound were brought together and retained by silver sutures, except at
the lowest part, where the ligatures were allowed to maintain a drain
for the discharge of fluids from the cavity." The patient was able to
swallow from a drinking-cup with a spout on the day following the
operation, and was able to travel upwards of 200 miles within four weeks
of the operation.
2. _By the Écraseur._--Nunneley of Leeds has recorded cases in which he
made a small incision through the skin, and mylohyoid and geniohyoid
muscles, and through this passed a curved needle bearing the chain of
the écraseur completely round the base of the tongue. In one case the
chain was unsatisfactory, but strong whipcord was introduced as it was
withdrawn, and tied with all possible force. The organ eventually
sloughed away, with a cure which lasted at least for some months.
Sir James Paget operates as follows:--
The patient is placed under the influence of chloroform, and the mouth
held widely open. The tongue is then drawn forwards, the mucous membrane
and soft parts of the floor of the mouth, including the attachment of
the genio-hyoglossi to the symphysis being divided close to the bone.
The steel wire of an écraseur is then passed round its root as low down
as possible, slowly tightened, and the tongue thus divided through its
whole thickness in a very few minutes. The bleeding is slight, being
almost entirely from the parts cut with the knife. Recovery has been
rapid in the recorded cases.[116]
To Dr. George Buchanan of Glasgow the credit is due of the invention of
the operation of removal of the half of the tongue in the median line.
In at least one instance the cure after five years is still permanent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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