Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition.Thomson, Alexis
Science
Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition.
Thomson, Alexis
Surgery
#Moist Gangrene# is an acute process, the dead part retaining its fluids
and so affording a favourable soil for the development of bacteria. The
action of the organisms and their toxins on the adjacent tissues leads
to a rapid and wide spread of the process. The skin becomes moist and
macerated, and bullæ, containing dark-coloured fluid or gases, form
under the epidermis. The putrefactive gases evolved cause the skin to
become emphysematous and crepitant and produce an offensive odour. The
tissues assume a greenish-black colour from the formation in them of a
sulphide of iron resulting from decomposition of the blood pigment.
Under certain conditions the dead part may undergo changes resembling
more closely those of ordinary post-mortem decomposition. Owing to its
nature the spread of the gangrene is seldom arrested by the natural
protective processes, and it usually continues until the condition
proves fatal from the absorption of toxins into the circulation.
The _clinical features_ vary in the different varieties of moist
gangrene, but the local results of bacterial action and the
constitutional disturbance associated with toxin absorption are present
in all; the prognosis therefore is grave in the extreme.
From what has been said, it will be gathered that in dry gangrene there
is no urgent call for operation to save the patient's life, the primary
indication being to prevent the access of bacteria to the dead part, and
especially to the surface exposed at the line of demarcation. In moist
gangrene, on the contrary, organisms having already obtained a footing,
immediate removal of the dead and dying tissues, as a rule, offers the
only hope of saving life.
VARIETIES OF GANGRENE
#Varieties of Gangrene essentially due to Interference with the
Circulation#
While the varieties of gangrene included in this group depend primarily
on interference with the circulation, it is to be borne in mind that the
clinical course of the affection may be profoundly influenced by
superadded infection with micro-organisms. Although the bacteria do not
play the most important part in producing tissue necrosis, their
subsequent introduction is an accident of such importance that it may
change the whole aspect of affairs and convert a dry form of gangrene
into one of the moist type. Moreover, the low state of vitality of the
tissues, and the extreme difficulty of securing and maintaining asepsis,
make it a sequel of great frequency.
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