Observations on the advantages of exposing wounds to the air after capital operations; with some remarks upon the removal of scirrhus tumours from the breast / Communicated in a letter to Samuel Bard.

  • Hosack, David, 1769-1835
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the advantages of exposing wounds to the air after capital operations; with some remarks upon the removal of scirrhus tumours from the breast / Communicated in a letter to Samuel Bard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    C11 ) tution having been enfeebled by the first operation, has end¬ ed fatally. Since that period, I have uniformly performed this operation by removing the whole glandular part of the breast, but retaining the integuments, except when they also have partaken of the disease ; and in every case so operated upon, the patient has afterwards remained perfectly free from any return of the complaint.. This fact leads to two important conclusions. 1st. That in most instances the scirrhous or cancerous affection of the breast is a local disease, and not a constitutional one, as many physicians have supposed. 2dly. That in those cases, where only the part of the breast was removed, and the remainder had become subse¬ quently affected, the latter disease had probably been in¬ duced by the inflammation occasioned by the operation in removing the first, and not from any vice of the whole sys¬ tem ; for in those cases which I have witnessed, the second¬ ary disease commenced during the existence of the inflam- mation which the operation had excited, and before the wound had entirely healed. I am, dear sir, with great respect and esteem, your’s, DAVID HOSACK, Samuel Bai^d, M. D. &c.