On the causes of death after amputation / by Thomas Bryant ; communicated by John Birkett.

  • Bryant, Thomas, 1828-1914.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes of death after amputation / by Thomas Bryant ; communicated by John Birkett. 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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    THE CAUSES OE DEATH 1 after excision of the knee, and 1 for disease of the cellular membrane.1 Amputations of expediency.—If we pass on to the next column, containing the statistics of the amputations of expe- diency, a very different result will be manifested to that which we have just given. Of the whole number of 33 cases, 10 were fatal, or 30 per cent., or 1 in 3-3. Amputations of the thigh, instead of yielding 18 per cent, of fatal cases, are there marked 31-57 per cent., or 1 in every 3-16 cases. Amputations of the leg, instead of being 7'7 per cent, fatal, are registered as 66-6 per cent. Amputations of the lower extremity as a whole are 40 per cent, fatal. Those of the arm and forearm are all cases of recovery. The difference in the fatality of the pathological ampu- tations and of those of expediency, proves the error of asso- ciating them together in statistical or other calculations; and we now, by their separation, gain a more correct idea of the fatality of each. The causes of death will be discussed as we proceed. For what disease or cause amputated.—Twenty-nine of the 33 cases were amputated for simple or malignant tumours of bone, or elephantiasis; including 19 of the thigh, 6 of which were fatal; 3 of the leg, 2 of which were fatal; 1 of the shoulder, 2 of the arm, and 4 of the forearm, all of which recovered. Two amputations for talipes were fatal. One after a Chopart, and a second after a compound fracture for deformity, recovered. Taking the amputations of the lower extremities for tumours alone, 36 per cent, were fatal; of the upper extremity all recovered. 1 In the original two cases of amputation for conical stumps were included, but it has been thought desirable to omit them, and to add the next two cases from my book of amputations.