A letter respectfully addressed to the Commissioners for Transports, Sick and Wounded Seamen, etc., on the subject of the operation for popliteal aneurism. Illustrated by cases, and the description of a new instrument / by Alex. Copland Hutchison.

Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter respectfully addressed to the Commissioners for Transports, Sick and Wounded Seamen, etc., on the subject of the operation for popliteal aneurism. Illustrated by cases, and the description of a new instrument / by Alex. Copland Hutchison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    4/22 (page 4)
    It frequently happens, likewife, that the external jj wound is kept open, for a confiderable length of j time after the ligatures have come away, by a pro- fufe difcharge of lymph from the wounded ends of : thefe veffels. In confirmation of which ftatement, i I appeal to all thofe who are in the habit of per- forming this operation*. By fecuring the artery from the upper or outer \ margin of the fartorius mufcle; no fuch objections can be urged—there are no large veins or lympha- tics in the way of the knife, and the operation will be finifhed in as fliort a time, with as little pain to the patient, and certainly with much greater fatif- fadtion to the operator, from his not being embar- raffed by haemorrhage ; a circumftance fo frequent- ly occurring, when operating on the part as direct- ed by Mr. Hunter. In the firft of the two cafes I am about to relate, not more than half an ounce of blood was loft, and the greater part of that quan- tity came from a minute cuticular artery. In the iaft, I pofitively afTert, there was not more in all than two drachms. In faCt, the operation performed in this way may be very aptly compared to that upon • the dead fubjeCt, with the advantage of a^beating artery to guide and direct you. Having fiid thus much in favour of operating by the outer margin of the fartorius, I come now to ; * See aifo a cafe in the Tranfadlions of a Society for the Im- provement of Medical and Surgical Knowledge. Vol. I.