A phenomenal aortic aneurysm / by W. Gilman Thompson.

  • Thompson, W. Gilman (William Gilman), 1856-1927.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A phenomenal aortic aneurysm / by W. Gilman Thompson. 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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    exposed, and a groove three-fourths of an inch in depth occupied the anterior part of its body. The heart was normal in size, firm, and showed some increase in fibrous tissue; the myocardium was firm and the coronary arteries were clear; the mi- tral and aortic cusps were somewhat thickened, and atheromatous plaques involved the base of the tho- racic aorta. At the root of the thoracic aorta a small fusiform aneurysm (3J4-6 cm. in diameter), was discovered. Both pleurae were adherent, and in the left pleural cavity were about 300 c.c. of clear serum. Bronchopneumonia was present. The patient’s emaciation may have been due to pressure upon the pancreas or ductus choledochus or liver, but neither sugar nor bile were discovered in the urine. The only suffering of which he com- plained while in hospital was from pain in the right leg which he kept in semiflexion. He was too ill to justify an exhaustive study of the reflexes or con- dition of the spine before death. Aneurysms of this type and size are exceedingly rare, and have sometimes been mistaken for angio- sarcoma, or parasitic tumors (actinomycosis, hyda- tids, etc.), pulsating abscesses or cysts. Sansom, of London, writing of this topic, states . “It is surprising how large an aneurysm and how considerable a dis- placement of organs may be undetected when the sac is close to the vertebral column and does not bulge forward.”* He also refers to the paroxysmal and nocturnal type of pain existing when there is erosion of the vertebrae, a phenomenon noted in the case above reported. In a statistical study of 10,360 autopsies made in Jena, Ernst MullerJ found 69 cases of aneurysm !LwenJieth Century Pract., Vol. IV., p. 511. T Zur Statistik der Aneurysmen” (Thesis).