Popliteal aneurism treated by a new method of compression / reported by A.F. Sawyer (by permission) at the meeting of the San Francisco (Cal.) Medical Benevolent Society, Feb. 21st, 1879.

  • Sawyer, A. F.
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Popliteal aneurism treated by a new method of compression / reported by A.F. Sawyer (by permission) at the meeting of the San Francisco (Cal.) Medical Benevolent Society, Feb. 21st, 1879. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    18/38 (page 10)
    I p. m.—Compression has gone on uninterruptedly two hours and ten minutes. Patient complains of chafing of the skin. His body had become slightly displaced from gravitation down- ward in bed. Twenty minutes was lost in bathing and repow- dering the skin and readjusting the apparatus, digital compress- ion being imperfectly kept up in the interval on account of the sensibility of the tissues over the artery below the profunda femoris. The aneurism was somewhat shrunken and con- densed, the skin presenting rather a purplish tint. Gr. i of gum opii administered. 2% p. m.—Apparatus slightly displaced after one and one- half hours' compression, and twenty minutes lost, digital com- pression being kept up as well as possible in the interval. A glass of milk punch occasionally given. P. 80, soft and regular. 3% p- m.—Apparatus readjusted, and ten minutes lost. Gum opii, gr. ii given. 4 p. m.—Fifteen minutes lost. No further interruption occurred until 6 p. m., when the an- eurism was examined, and it was found that all pulsation in the tumor had ceased. The weight was then removed. The corded femoral could be distinctly traced without pulsation for several inches above the aneurism. The tumor changed but little in appearance after the first two hours of compression. P. 90. It will be observed that the compression was continued for six hours and ten minutes, less sixty-five minutes employed in readjusting the apparatus, when digital compression was imper- fectly supplemented. During this time the patient was in ex- cellent spirits, chatting with his friends, and suffering no pain at the point of compression except from the chafing of the skin previously referred to. He remarked often that his leg had not felt so comfortably for days previous to the operation. There was no appearance of bruise or contusion of the skin where the compressor had rested, and no tumefaction of the foot, ankle or leg below the knee. The temperature of the limb was exalted. The prickling and numb sensations were not per- ceptibly increased during the operation. In fact, when ques-