Report of Dr. Joseph H. Warren, of Massachusetts, chairman of Committee on Foreign Delegates : also essay on new surgical instruments.

  • Warren, Joseph H.
Date:
1881
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Dr. Joseph H. Warren, of Massachusetts, chairman of Committee on Foreign Delegates : also essay on new surgical instruments. 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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    c~\ wound easy of coaptation, and working as a spiral twist, can be inserted through firm and hard tissues and ligaments with great ease and remain in the exact position in which we leave it; nor can it be forced out. The point being fiat and lancet-shaped, will not glance to one side as the ordinary scarf-pointed needle, hut will go straight to the mark wherever we wish to send it. It is very useful also in tapping about the knee-joint in effu- sions, of the pericardium, in the tumefaction of strangulated hernia, or in hydrocele, where I have found a small needle like this far better to remove the effusion than a large trocar.. Ex- ploring and aspirating needle number two is much longer, and of a larger size than number one. It is used for deep-seated ab- scesses, ovarian cysts, fibroid and other tu- mors of the uterus, or any deep-seated abscess Fig. G. of the liver or abdomen. This needle was made for me by Messrs. Weiss, of London. The herniotome number one is an instru- ment which Dr. Bryant tells me he invented some twenty-five years ago. I have had the cutting edge serrated to divide Poupart’s ligament. I thus think to avoid the possi- ble hemorrhage resulting from the use of the ordinary herniotomy knife, as the saw work- ing in a sheath in the body of the instru- ment produces a serration and laceration of the coats of the bloodvessels. I have slightly altered the instrument in several other points as well. Humber two is an instrument devised by Weiss several years ago (Fig. 6). Upon this instrument I have also had the cutting edge serrated. A protecting slide or female sheath* covers the cutting or male portion of the in- strument. While the instrument is being in- troduced the cutting edge is covered. When well in place the sheath is withdrawn, and the saw-like motion set up to cut the ligaments. These her- n 10tomes will be found very useful in the operation for stran- gulated hernia, since no director has to be used, and since no injury or hemorrhage will result from the introduction of the instrument or the subsequent division of the ligament. I next show you Dr. Golding Bird’s torsion forceps, which are Weiss's hernia bistoury, as improved.