Tracheotomy in laryngeal diphtheria (membranous croup) : with especial reference to after-treatment to which are added a few general remarks on diphtheria, and its earlier treatment / by Robert William Parker.

  • Parker, Robert William, -1913.
Date:
1880
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tracheotomy in laryngeal diphtheria (membranous croup) : with especial reference to after-treatment to which are added a few general remarks on diphtheria, and its earlier treatment / by Robert William Parker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    volume of the ' Philosophical Transactions,' p. 448. The author is giving an account of the operation of Bron- chotome. The case seems to have been one of laryngeal diphtheria: the operation was completely- successful, the canula being removed on the fourth day. He says, I cannot but think it an ingenious proposal of one of our ministers here to make the pipe double, or one within another ; that the innermost might safely and easily be taken out and cleaned when necessary without any molestation to the patient. . . , It has been proposed by one author to substitute for the knife, caustics; by another, the actual cautery; by another, the galvano-cautery; by another, a heated scalpel. In each case, it was hoped thus to avoid haemorrhage or to lessen its amount. The diseases or accidents for which and in which tracheotomy has been performed are many and various. Foreign bodies in the trachea, and angina, were the earliest indications. Subsequently it was proposed in cases of drowning, with the double object pf drawing water out and forcing air into the lungs. Dr. Marshall Hall proposed it in cases of spasm of the glottis during an epileptic seizure; it has been practised also during tetanic spasm. Further, intra-laryngeal growths may necessitate the operation ; as also tumours in the neigh- bourhood of the trachea, which, either by displacing it, or by pressing upon it, or by paralysing the nerves which control the opening of the glottis, interfere with the free and easy entrance of air into the lungs. Of all the many writers on the subject of tracheotomy, there is one more especially whose name stands pre- eminent. I refer to Trousseau. It was through his. labours and genius that the operation became popularized, B 2