Tracheotomy in laryngeal diphtheria (membranous croup) : with especial reference to after-treatment to which are added a few general remarks on diphtheria, and its earlier treatment / by Robert William Parker.

  • Parker, Robert William, -1913.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tracheotomy in laryngeal diphtheria (membranous croup) : with especial reference to after-treatment to which are added a few general remarks on diphtheria, and its earlier treatment / by Robert William Parker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/106 (page 15)
    of soda, or of borate of soda, will also be found of great service. The 'patient may be advantageously allowed to inspire some of the spray (vide Fig. 13, p. 45); for this will lessen the tendency of the disease to spread into the larynx. As soon as the first symptoms of laryngeal complica- tions come on, the patient should be put into the croup-bed (vide page 40), and made to breathe a vapour containing either kreasote, or carbolic acid. The warm, moist air will favour bronchial secretion, and the elimination of the poison. The soda solutions are particularly serviceable at this stage; they seem to render the inflammatory products less organizable. As regards internal remedies, little need be said, for there is no hard and fast line of treatment; each symptom must be combated as it arises. If there is much depression, carbonate of ammonia with senega (and a little glycerine to make it palatable) will have good effect. Quinine is valuable in all stages of the disease: it may be combined with the perchloride of iron or given alone. Some authors regard iron as the remedy : but in young children, I think, it is apt to disagree, if pushed too far. In the earlier stages of the disease, there is sometimes a tendency to laryngeal spasm: then bromide of ammonium will be found useful : it may also be relieved by a few whiffs of chloroform: and the quietness thus produced will further enable us to get a more accurate knowledge of the amount of real mechanical dyspnoea with which we have to deal. Disinfection.—There is always some danger of a spread of the disease to other persons in the immediate surroundings of the patient. This is especially the case