Statistical report of all operations performed on healthy joints in hospital practice by Mr. Lister, from September 1871 to the present time, together with such accidental wounds of joints as occurred in the same period / by W. Watson Cheyne, F.R.C.S.

  • Cheyne, William Watson, Sir, 1852-1932
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical report of all operations performed on healthy joints in hospital practice by Mr. Lister, from September 1871 to the present time, together with such accidental wounds of joints as occurred in the same period / by W. Watson Cheyne, F.R.C.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    would at once choose the spray as the least important and that which could be the most easily dispensed with. In fact, the antiseptic treat- ment was carried on for years by Mr. Lister without any spray; the wounds being washed out with carbolic lotion, and carbolic putty, lac plaster, or other dressing acting on similar principles immediately applied. Hence, to say that, because a surgeon uses the spray, or, indeed, all the materials for antiseptic work, he therefore employs the antiseptic treatment, is incorrect, unless the various means are used with the defi- nite aim of excluding the putrefactive ferments. On the other hand, to say that, because a surgeon does not use a spray or even carbolic acid, he therefore does not employ the antiseptic method, would be equally incorrect. So long as the result of his treatment is to exclude or render inert the causes of putrefaction, he has been practising anti- septic treatment. Besides the avoidance of putrefaction an essential element in the treatment is to provide free drainage for blood and serum, and so avoid inflammatory disturbance from tension. It will prevent repetition if I give here a case in full as a type of the course usually followed under antiseptic treatment by incised wounds in healthy tissues. Cases behaving similarly will be referred to in the sequel as having run an aseptic course. John D., aged 43, was admitted into the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on February 12th, 1874, suffering from exostosis growing from the ex- ternal condyle of the right femur. The patient stated that for the last thirty years a swelling had existed on the outer side of the lower end of the right femur. This had increased very slowly, but of late it had in- terfered with the movements of the knee-joint. There was a small tumour about the size of an orange, quite hard, situated on the outer side of the right knee, apparently growing from the external condyle of the femur. The patient complained of great pain in walking. Operation.—February 12th. A longitudinal incision about three inches in length was made on the outer side of the knee over the tumour. Some synovial fluid escaped, probably from a wound in the capsule of the knee-joint. The tumour was found to be pedunculated, and the pedicle was cut across by bone-forceps. (The rough ridge cor- responding to the base of the tumour extended to a point three-quarters of an inch below the level of the upper border of the patella, the limb B 2