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.

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    been detached from one of the pulmonary veins of the right side. I must refer the interested reader to Dr. Foster's work, as the account of the case from the well- known accuracy and acumen of the observer will w^ell repay perusal. Albuminous expectoration and CEdema of Lungs. These events seem to be the bugbears of French writers.''' In only one of my cases have I noticed any approach to the marvellous quantities of fluid expectorated which some French operators record, and this case is related in the appendix herewith (Tom Wray, case ig) The fluid was distinctly albuminous. M. Revillont has met with albuminous expectoration in patients who have not had pleurisy. Should dyspnoea come on after the operation and threaten to become dangerous, stimulants, the sitting position and possibly bleeding would prove of most service. Hoematufia. I have observed this symptom on one occasion, and believe it to be a sign of the worst import. (See case 38 in Appendix). Pyrexia. It was Trousseau's boast, and one of the arguments of his enthusiastic advocacy of the operation, that it reduces temperature, and I have been somewhat surprised to read that after puncturing, patients without fever become feverish for a day or tw^o, and in feverish cases a moderate rise of temperature takes place.! In eleven of the operations recorded in the appendix where the thermometric observations have been preserved in one only is any rise of temperature noted after the tapping. The results are as follows :— No of case in appendix. 17. Gradual rise commencing three days after tapping. 18. Fall from 102° to 99^ in two days. * See Medical Press and Circular, June 29th, 1881, p. 552. See especially British Med. Journal, Oct. 4th and nth, 1873. Duffin. British Med. Journal, March 21st, 1874, p. 372, Johnson. Ibid, Oct. 25th, 1873, p. 479.