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
In every case the abdominal tourniquet will be found of great service in
checking hæmorrhage, during the operation of amputation at the
hip-joint. It consists of an arch of steel fitted with a pad behind,
which rests against the vertebral column, and a pad in front playing on
a very fine and long screw, through an opening in the arch. When screwed
down tightly on the aorta just before the incisions are commenced, it
checks hæmorrhage admirably without injuring the viscera. When this is
applied, a method of amputation once practised by Mr. Syme, though not
so rapid as the double-flap method by transfixion, will be found very
easy, and to result in most excellent flaps. He cut an anterior flap in
the usual manner by transfixion, then made a straight incision from its
outer edge down to about two inches below the great trochanter, thus
exposing it fully, and from the lower end of this incision transfixed
again, cutting a posterior flap nearly equal in size to the anterior; a
few strokes of the knife round the joint finished the disarticulation.
The resulting flaps came together with great accuracy, and were not
burdened with the great unequal masses of muscles so often noticed in
the posterior flaps which are made by cutting from within outwards
_after_ disarticulation.
In some cases of amputation where the femur has been badly shattered, it
is a good plan to amputate through the upper third of thigh, tie all the
vessels, and then, aided by an incision at outer side, dissect out the
head of the bone.
Mr. Furneaux Jordan of Birmingham carries out this principle by first
dividing the soft parts in circular direction low down the thigh, and
then dissecting out the head of the bone from the muscles by a long
incision on the outer aspect of the limb.
_Note._--In severe cases of smash when both lower limbs have
required amputation, the author has derived much assistance from
the method of managing the operation detailed below:--
_Double Primary Amputation of (both) Thighs from railway
smash_--_Rapid recovery._--G., a healthy-looking man, aged
twenty-seven, but looking much older, while driving a horse near
Granton, caught his foot on the edge of a rail at a point, fell,
and both his legs were run over by several loaded wagons. A special
engine was procured, his thighs tightly tied up, and he was sent up
to hospital at once.
I was in hospital at the time, so with as little delay as possible
he was placed on the operating table, and the necessity for
amputation being too evident, I obtained his leave to remove both
his legs above the knee; but his pulse was very feeble, and he was
intensely nervous, throwing his arms wildly about, panting for
breath, and looking very ill, cold, and exhausted.
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