On the causes of death after amputation / by Thomas Bryant ; communicated by John Birkett.

  • Bryant, Thomas, 1828-1914.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes of death after amputation / by Thomas Bryant ; communicated by John Birkett. 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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    to be a more frequent cause of death than in the same operation upon the leg • in amputations of expediency, it would appear that pyaemia is 25 per cent, a more frequent cause of death when applied to the leg than to the thigh ; in primary amputations the difference is still more marked, for pyaemia is a cause of death in such operations upon the leg in the proportion of 54 per cent., and in the thigh but 27 per cent., or exactly twice as fatal. In secondary amputations the reverse must be observed, for in the thigh, pyaemia is a cause in 33 per cent., in the leg, but 12 per cent. From Table C similar conclusions may be drawn. Touching the subject of exhaustion as a cause of death in cases of amputation of the thigh and leg, it bears exactly an opposite proportion to pyaemia; for when the numbers are high under exhaustion, they are low under pyaemia. In pathological amputations they bear an equal average. In amputations of expediency, in which pyaemia is so fatal when applied to the leg, exhaustion is an unknown cause; and in the thigh it is the cause of death in but 17 per cent, of the fatal cases. In primary amputations of the thigh, exhaustion is the cause of death in 58 per cent.; of the leg in 13 per cent, only; being the reverse of pyaemia, which is 100 per cent, more fatal in amputations of the leg than of the thigh. In secondary amputations, again, exhaustion proves more fatal in the leg than in the thigh, in the proportion of 75 to 33 per cent. Period of death from pyaemia after operation.-—Amongst the 33 fatal examples of pyaemia, there are 15 cases following pathological amputations and amputations of expediency of the lower extremity; 12 of these died within fourteen days, the remaining 3 sinking from secondary abscesses in the second or third month. The symptoms made their appearance within a few days of the operation. Among traumatic amputations there are 12 cases, 1 only of these dying upon the twelfth day, the remaining