On surgical swings and pulleys as aids to rest and motion / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On surgical swings and pulleys as aids to rest and motion / by Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    We had been accustomed to think that the spinal column yielding at a softened spot became consolidated in an angular position, as the result of nature’s curative effort, which it was desirable, within certain limits, to favour and not to thwart. Sayre teaches us how best to prevent the curvature of the softened spine, and, when it has become bent, to straighten it and keep it straightened by suspending the patient and fixing the trunk in a plaster-jacket. This plan of treatment proves to be an excellent one in very many cases. I was putting it into practice, in consultation with my friend, Dr. Minn of Brownhills, and with the assistance of my then house-surgeon, Mr. R. B. Wilkins, when a defect in the apparatus was very nearly attended with fatal con- sequences. The jacket had been almost completed when I noticed the suspended patient looking pale and unconscious, the pulse at the wrist being at the same time barely perceptible. The cord being drawn taut, and not running easily in the compound pulley-blocks, I could only release our patient instantly by lifting her in my arms, while Dr. Minn unhooked the pulleys from the top of the tripod. With restoratives in the horizontal position animation soon revived, but the experience was impressive, and I have since heard of more than one similar case. It occurred to me that what was required was a pulley which admitted of a weight being lifted easily, fixed at any height, and rapidly released. I found all these conditions fulfilled by Weston’s pulley-block, which is largely manu- factured for industrial purposes by Messrs. Tangye, of this town. Having communicated the idea to our surgical instru- ment makers, Messrs. Salt and Son, they, with the friendly concurrence of the patentees, have modified and adapted the pulleys above mentioned to surgical purposes, and made some very ingenious and practically useful modifications in the apparatus with which they are employed. Such is the construction of the modified tripod that, when the patient is raised, a very slight deflection of the cord to the right or left causes the pulley to become instantly self- retentive ; that is to say, the body, whatever its weight, cannot possibly descend, although the forco which raised it be suddenly