A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 3 : $b Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and hæmatopoietic systems
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 3 : $b Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and hæmatopoietic systems
Medicine -- Practice
SYMPTOMATOLOGY.--Small growths in localities where they neither provoke
cough nor interfere with voice or respiration may run their course for
a long time without giving rise to any symptoms at all. Growths of
larger size, pedunculated growths, and growths located upon important
structures give rise to interference with voice, respiration, or
deglutition as may be--to cough, and even to pain. Dysphonia is due to
mechanical interference with vibrations of the edges of the vocal
bands; aphonia, to mechanical interference with their approximation;
diphthonia, to mechanical interference at an acoustic node. These
manifestations may be permanent or intermittent. Dysphonia is one of
the earliest symptoms of carcinoma, and is usually continuous for a
number of months before any other indication. Aphonia in carcinoma is
often due to nerve-lesion. Dyspnoea is due to some considerable
mechanical occlusion of the respiratory tract, whether by the growth
itself or in consequence of oedema or of intercurrent tumefaction. It
is inspiratory rather than expiratory, and subject to aggravation at
night. As with the dysphonia, it varies with the size, location, and
mobility of the growth and the position of the head and neck. It may be
intermittent or permanent; be slight or severe; or it may terminate in
apnoea by spasm, by mechanical occlusion of the calibre of the larynx,
or by impaction of the growth at the chink of the glottis. Marked
encroachment on the breathing-space is not accompanied with as marked
dyspnoea as in acute processes, the parts seeming to acquire tolerance
during the slow growth of neoplasms.
Dysphagia is due to a growth at the top of the larynx or on some
portion of its pharyngeal surface. It is quite frequent in carcinoma,
preceding dysphonia in the extrinsic varieties. It may be associated
with regurgitation of food, drink, or saliva into the larynx,
provocative of paroxysms of suffocation. Cough is due to growths which
project from the vocal bands or press upon them, or to hemorrhage or
accumulation of secretory or suppurative products. Hemorrhage, cough,
and expectoration of bloody and fetid masses are indicative of
carcinoma. Pain is usually due to intercurrent conditions. Aches in the
part and sensations of the presence of a foreign substance are more
frequent. Intense pain is exceptional in benign neoplasmata; it is
often an early symptom in carcinoma, in which it is apt to radiate
toward the ears and along the neck. Epileptic seizures and vertigo are
sometimes occasioned by reflex influence. Exceptionally, large growths
may produce change in the external configuration of the larynx. The
general health is not much involved in benign growths, unless they
interfere seriously with important physiological functions. Impaired
health is far less manifest in sarcoma than in carcinoma. Emaciation,
pyresis, and marasmus eventually occur as constitutional manifestations
of malign growths.
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