On haemorrhagic cysts of the thyroid with notes of three cases / by E.W. Archibald.

  • Archibald, Edward William, 1872-1945.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On haemorrhagic cysts of the thyroid with notes of three cases / by E.W. Archibald. 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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    HAEMORRHAGIC CTSTfirOF THE THYROID WITH NOTES OF THREE CASES* BY E. W. Archibald, M.D., C.M., (Resident Surgeon, Royal Victoria Hospital.) In a recent number of the Journal of Experimental Medicine/ there appeared a very interesting and instructive paper by Dr. W. I. Bradley, embodying the result of a research upon the nature of certain cysts of the thyroid gland, the origin of which, he concluded, was haemorrhagic. During the past nine months we have had the opportunity of exam- ining two cases of the same nature in the pathological department of the Royal Victoria Hospital,—one of these removed by Dr. Bell and one by Dr. Garrow. And as these specimens not only confirm the conclusions of Dr. Bradley, but also seem to elucidate some points left by'him sub judice, I have ventured, under Dr. Adami’s sugges- tion, to bring them before this Society. Before reviewing Dr. Bradley’s conclusions and remarking on the present specimens, it may not be out of place to mention a few points of interest in the history of the subject. I owe the information to Wohler’s work on operations upon the thyroid.2 Cysts have been extirpated since the time of Celsus,3 who recom- mended cutting down on them, and then either destroying them with caustics, or doing a blunt dissection of the intact cyst. His method of extirpation was followed by Galen,4 who drew attention to pos- sible wounding of the great vessels and the recurrent nerve: by Aiteus,5 the Arab Albucasis and others of the dark and middle ages. From the 13th to the 18th century, the operative treatment of these cysts seems to have been fairly common. Rulandus6 in the 13th century recommends the use of the seton and the hot iron, and draws attention to the necessity of extirpation of the whole capsule on ac- count of the danger of recurrence. Laufrancus a little later advises simple incision and cleaning out of the cyst. The father of Scul- tetus opened a thyroid cyst and emptied the fluid contents—with successful result. In the 18th century, Johann Astruc recommended puncture with the trocar for these cysts, and the seton when the contents are thick. * Read before the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society, January 29th, 1897. ft fi , s