The care of the sick at home and in the hospital : a handbook for families and for nurses / by Th. Billroth ; translated by J. Bentall Endean.

  • Billroth, Theodor, 1829-1894.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The care of the sick at home and in the hospital : a handbook for families and for nurses / by Th. Billroth ; translated by J. Bentall Endean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    149/356 (page 137)
    tion table to private houses would be very inconvenient; therefore the surgeon endeavours to manage with the furniture in the house. It is most injudicious to perform a severe operation on a patient in the bed in which he is afterwards to lie, as the bedding is seldom preserved from blood-stains and thorough saturation. Where possible, the person to be operated on should always have the full benefit of the narcosis. For this it is necessary that he should be narcotised to unconsciousness either in bed or on a sofa, thence lifted on to the operation table, kept unconscious until the bandaging is finished, and then allowed to wake in a clean newly-made bed. In hospitals, this cannot always be carried out, but it may be in private practice. The getting on to the operation table is the most painful moment for the patients: wherever possible, this should be spared them. It can scarcely require to be specially mentioned that no preparations for the operation sliould be made in the presence of the patient: he should see nothing of instruments, bandages, or other arrangements. Very timid women should be left in their morning dress, but the bands of their underclothing should be loosened for breathing easily, and they should only be undressed as far as necessary when narcotised. A severe operation cannot be performed upon a sofa having a back: a lounge sofa without arms is better (chaise longue), but this is veiy' inconvenient for the surgeon and for his assistants, because it is too low j even the strongest man in a continued stooping position gets unbear- able pains in the loins, and the blood flows to his head. Such inconveniences make all who are present nervous and unquiet. If insufficient light, or other unlooked-for difficulties in the operation should be added, the person operated on will