The operative treatment of intra-thoracic effusion / by Norman Porritt.

  • Porritt, Norman, 1858-
Date:
[1883?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The operative treatment of intra-thoracic effusion / by Norman Porritt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    34/328 (page 18)
    Indeed, all considerations, both anatomical and practical, included with the results of recent experience, show that operations on the thoracic parietes into the pleural cavity are as safe as those upon the abdominal. In order to explain the frequent performance of abdominal, and the avoidance of thoracic paracentesis, we must fall back upon the quotation at the head of this section, as well as recollect that our forefathers, by drugs and other measures not involving paracentesis, not infrequently procured absorption of fluid in a certain number of cases of pleural effusion. There- fore, argued they, as some of our cases recover by the drug treatment, all if they can get better will do so ; and if our purgings, bleedings, blisterings, salivations, and sweatings cannot bring the patients round, no operation can. Thus they tapped the abdomen for affections, which it was beyond the power of their drugs to cure ; but were content to leave untouched those accumulations within the chest, which, at the present day, timely surgical interference permanently cures much more frequently than the abdominal affection. And we shall have to enquire the value of the treatment of intra-thoracic effusion by drugs alone, by operations alone, and by the two combined. Varieties of Operations. The operations for Intra-thoracic Effusion, are conveniently divided into two classes, as has been done by the most recent writer concerning them ;* they are :— 1. The close method of operating. .^ 2. The open method of operating. The first class of operations might be aptly denomin- ated subcutaneous. The operation for the evacuation of Intra-thoracic Effusion is technically termed para- centesis thoracis ; that for pericardial effusion, para- centesis pericardii. In perusing descriptions of the operation I have been struck by the loose, indefinite, * Marshall. Lancet, vo\. i, i88z.