Second memoir on excision of the knee-joint : to which is appended a remarkable example of the power of operative surgery in saving the same articulation / by Richard G.H. Butcher.

  • Butcher, Richard G. H., 1819-1891.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second memoir on excision of the knee-joint : to which is appended a remarkable example of the power of operative surgery in saving the same articulation / by Richard G.H. Butcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/82 (page 11)
    caused by the ulceration of the cartilage, and his state of ner¬ vous debility, showed that lie could not have borne up longer under the source of irritation. There was a sinuous opening in the ham, which discharged a quantity of matter. The ope¬ ration was performed on the above date. There was a consi¬ derable quantity of pus in the joint, and distinct ulceration of the cartilage on the condyles of the femur and head of the tibia. The incision nearly all healed by the first intention, and every¬ thing went on well till about the beginning of March, when an abscess began to form on the outside of the thigh, a little above the seat of the operation. This was opened on the 28th of March, and afterwards the abscess gradually closed, and finally closed altogether. The limb after some months became firmly anchyloseda. Case X.—The following is a very important case, replete with interest, and communicated to me by that most admirable surgeon, Dr. Keith, of Aberdeen. I shall give his own gra¬ phic description:—“John Thompson, aged 33, seaman, long affected with abscesses in the thigh, communicating with the knee-joint, admitted to the hospital, 13th of February, 1855. Excision of the knee-joint was accomplished on the 10th of March most satisfactorily; for a time all went on well, but recurring abscesses down the leg, and up the thigh, with per¬ sistent diarrhoea and extreme curvature of the limb, from re¬ traction of the muscles of the inner hamstring, induced me, after a bold struggle, extending over 224 days, on the 20th of October to amputate at the middle of the thigh. He made most rapid recovery after, and wras dismissed, in robust health, on the 30th day of November, 1855. He continues well, and is now (11th March, 1856, the time when I received the report) being fitted with an artificial limb. So this is one failure in my hands out of three, but the patient lives, and is in health, and had a chance for his own limb.” Case XI.—Mr. Tatum excised the knee-joint of a young man, aged 18, in St. George’s Hospital, May 1, 1855. The patient had been under treatment for some time, on account of strumous disease of the knee-joint, which had existed for some years; he had been treated by various modes; the pain, how¬ ever, remained, and an abscess formed, which was opened on the 13th of the previous February. Matters not improving, on the above date, it was decided, as there seemed only a small part of the bones involved, to excise their articular extremities, * Edinburgh Medical Journal.