Amputation of the entire lower jaw, with disarticulation of both condyles / by Henry J. Bigelow.

  • Carnochan, J. M. (John Murray), 1817-1887.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Amputation of the entire lower jaw, with disarticulation of both condyles / by Henry J. Bigelow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OF THE ENTIRE LOWER JAW. Notwithstanding the repeated instances on record of larire portions of the lower jaw having been lost by accident or dis¬ ease, surgeons appear to have been slow in admitting the possi¬ bility of practising amputation, either partial or total, of this bone. To Dupuytren was reserved the glory of having, in 1812. first removed, by a methodical operation, a portion of the body of the inferior maxilla; but since the innovation of the cele¬ brated French surgeon, the operation for the partial exsection of this bone has been repeatedly performed. In the annals of surgery, there is an allusion made to the amputation of the entire lower jaw, by Whither, of Bonn; but I have not been able to trace the truth of it to an official source. The following case will prove that this operation can be performed with success; and that the patient, although de¬ prived of the chief instrument of mastication, may survive, and enjoy the usual condition of health. Nicholas Donegan, aged 43, a farmer by occupation, was admitted into the New-York Emigrants’ Hospital, March 7th, 1851. lie was treated for some weeks, in the Medical Divi¬ sion, for typhus fever, and was afterwards transferred to the Surgical Department, under my charge. Upon examination of the patient, his face presented much tumefaction, and he complained of great pain, seated chiefly in the region occu-