Case of fatal hemorrhage from perforation of the aorta by false teeth impacted in the oesophagus / [James Duncan].

  • Duncan, James, 1810-1849
Date:
1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of fatal hemorrhage from perforation of the aorta by false teeth impacted in the oesophagus / [James Duncan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/8
    rSF Ay ^/sby^At sy t L ^ _ Case of Fatal Hemorrhage from Perforation of the Aorta by False Teeth impacted in the (Esophagus. By James Duncan, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, L. and E., one of the Surgeons to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. -Calder, set. 22, Edinburgh, March 9, 1844, had lost his two superior anterior incisors when a boy by an injury re¬ ceived when playing at ball. Being a dentist’s workman, he had, to conceal the loss, made at his spare hours artificial substi¬ tutes which he had worn for the last three months. These were intended to be removed at night, and in consequence of this, as well as to prevent them from being seen, he had made the gold plates, by means of which they were attached to the adjoining teeth, as little projecting as possible, compatible with the retain¬ ing them in position. The consequence was, that their grasp of the adjacent teeth was but slight, and they could be displaced with ease. His master had repeatedly warned him of the dan¬ ger attending the wearing them during sleep, and recommended him always to remove them. He had, however, neglected this precaution, and on the 28th February last, he had gone to rest with them as usual. In the morning the teeth were amissing; and after a fruitless search for them amongst the bed-clothes, he became convinced that he must have swallowed them. He was further confirmed in this opinion by the difficulty in swallowing which he experienced, and by the sharp pain which he suffered when the attempt was made. He was naturally much alarmed by the accident, and in consequence applied to Mr Syme for assistance. Mr S. passed a probang, and detected a foreign body in the oesophagus, considerably below the cricoid cartilage, and much beyond the reach of the ordinary forceps used for ex¬ tracting foreign bodies from the gullet. Mr S. now recommended his removal to the hospital, and when there introduced a probang with threads passed through the bulb, the other ends being retained in the hand, trusting that if the bulb could be carried beyond the foreign body, it might be entangled by them, and thus removed. Nothing, however, was detected, and it was believed that it had found its way into the stomach,—an opinion which was rendered the more probable by the fact, that the difficult deglutition was by no means so great as previously. So considerable indeed was the relief, that the young man requested permission to leave the hospital the same