Observations on trusses / by Thomas Pridgin Teale.

  • Teale, Thomas Pridgin, 1801?-1868.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on trusses / by Thomas Pridgin Teale. 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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    Amidst the various devices, patented and non-patented, which have from time to time been contrived for the relief of reducible hernia, the surgeon, who is only occasionally called upon to minister to hernial patients, feels bewildered by the number and diversity of the-objects presented to his choice, and is unable to determine their relative merits. Even the hospital surgeon may occasionally be found whose mind is not fully settled on this subject. Without presuming to expect that any observations of mine can remove the difficulty, but in the hope that they may in some degree lessen it, I venture to submit to the profession a description of the trusses which both in hospital and in private practice I have found to be the most valuable. It has been for some time my endea- vour to select, from the hernial bandages hitherto employed, such portions of them as appeared the most beneficial, and to combine these elements so as to consti- tute a truss capable of affording support to the viscera, and comfort and security to the wearer. The trasses which it is my present object to describe, consist of the ordi- nary elastic steel girdle, a hard pad spe- cially adapted in size and form to the part requiring support iu the different species of hernia, and a spiral spring acting pei-pemlicularly upon the pad. Elastic girdles of steel, recommended in 16(55 by Matthias Mayor, were after- wards extensively used by Blegny, and are now in general use. A spiral spring acting directly upon the pad was occa- sionally employed by Blegny, and has since been adopted in the construction of “ Coles’s patent truss. Pads of hard material, as wood and iron, were em- ployed as early as the thirteenth cen- tury, and after long disuse have re- cently been brought into operation by Drs. Hood and Chase, in America. The material employed by these surgeons was boxwood. In reporting upon Dr. Chase’s truss, the Philadelphian Com- mittee state that it is “ worn with so much comfort that patients generally relinquish it unwillingly, and sometimes absolutely refuse so to do, even when pronounced cured by the surgeon ” For many years I have invariably used trusses, with ivory pads, in the treat- ment of inguinal hernia in infants, and of late have used hard puds of ivory or wood, with scarcely any exception, in the treatment of reducible hernia both of infants and adults. By the use of the hard pad the most perfect and defi- nite support is given to the weak part of the abdominal wall; but in its use care must be taken that the form and size of the pad, and the amount of pres- sure exercised by it, are judiciously adapted to the particular case. The trusses to be described in this paper have been constructed for me by Mr. Thomas Eagland, of Bond Street, Leeds. It affords me much pleasure to have this opportunity of paying my tri- bute of respect to him for the artistic skill and the science which he has most successfully brought to bear in their construction. The oblique inguinal truss.—The oblique inguinal truss consists of an elastic girdle of steel, to which is adapted a hard pad of oblongo-oval form, acted upon by a spiral spring. By means of the elastic steel girdle the truss maintains a firm and steady seat upon the pelvis ; by the hard pad of oblongo-oval form a firm support is given to the internal ring and inguinal canal, the external ring being left free; and, by the spiral spring, the pressure of the pad is directed perpendicularly upon the part requiring support, during the varied movements of the body. Through the medium of the spiral also, the degree of pressure exercised by the pad admits of being modified by tight- ening or slackening the end of the girdle-strap, which is fixed to the but- ton on the pad. The girdle is formed of a strip of elastic steel, rather more than half an inch in breadth, and of sufficient length to extend from the pad across the back of the j)elvis as far as the haunch of the opposite side, from which point the girdle is prolonged by a leathern belt across the lower and front part of the abdomen to be fixed to a button on the pad.