Another case of amputation of the thigh at its upper fourth, in which acupressure was successfully employed : with remarks / by P.D. Handyside.

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881.
Date:
[1862]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Another case of amputation of the thigh at its upper fourth, in which acupressure was successfully employed : with remarks / by P.D. Handyside. 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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    ANOTHER OF ACUPRESSURE IN CASE AMPUTATION. A. A. M., aged forty-one years, of strumous habit, temperate, a native of Edinbm-gli, received, in 1839, while at Leeds, and leading a wandering life, a severe burn along the right thigh, knee, and leg, from a mass of live cinders that fell on him while he, being ex- hausted, lay asleep before the fire. He was taken to the Leeds Infirmary, where he remained for four months and a half j at the end of which time there existed an extensive and obstinate ulcera- tion, for which he was transferred by the parochial authorities to Edinburgh, and remained under treatment in the Royal Infirmary for five weeks. He then left the house with the burnt surface par- tially cicatrized. Thereupon the ulceration opened anew; and, in July 1840, he returned to the Infirmary, and came under my care; when, in addition to treatment for an ophthalmic afiection, he had his limb attended to, which, he states, cicatrized before he left the house. A. A. M. afterwards went to Sheffield, where, for an erup- tive complaint, he took eighteen blue pills, by which he was pro- fusely salivated. So powerfully was his system afiected by this medicine, that mercurial tremours, attended with paralysis of the bladder, supervened. Subsequently the ulceration broke out afresh. After this he wandered to London, and lay in St Bartholomew's ■under treatment for a spreading ulceration of the old cicatrized sur- face. Thence he was returned to Scotland, as formerly; and, in April last, during fourteen days, lay again in the Infii-mary here, but without improving in his condition; and before leaving that institution, although his life was in extreme peril from an excessive discharge of matter, he refused to submit to amputation of the limb. When asked in May 1861, by Dr M'Cowan, to visit A. A. M., I found him emaciated, debilitated, and labouring under exhausting irritative fever, with extremely feeble intermitting pulse of about 160 per minute. But as he was apparently fr-ee fr-om organic disease—an opinion in which I was confirmed by Professor Simpson —and as the sufierer was anxious for me to remove his limb, I placed him under preparatoiy treatment for the operation. During this time the greatest obstacle encountered in the way of progress, notwithstanding the large and lofty apartment occupied singly by the patient, was the puti-id emanations that arose from the profuse discharge, mixed with blood, issuing from the ulcerated surfaces, as well as from abscesses in the popliteal cavity, which it had become necessary to open freely. A plentiful use, however, of Condy's patent fluid proved of the gi-eatest service in deodorizing the vitiated air of the room and lobby. Accordingly, A. A. M. rallied somewhat from a state of extreme prostration, and now presented the symptoms of pure hectic only.