A case of total laryngectomy (unsuccessful) and a case of abdominal hysterectomy (successful) : in both of which massage of the heart for chloroform collapse was employed, with notes of 25 other cases of cardiac massage / by W.W. Keen.

  • Keen, William W. (William Williams), 1837-1932.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A case of total laryngectomy (unsuccessful) and a case of abdominal hysterectomy (successful) : in both of which massage of the heart for chloroform collapse was employed, with notes of 25 other cases of cardiac massage / by W.W. Keen. 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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    been made accessible for massage are threefold: First, by compression between the hands, one being applied outside the chest and the other directly upon the heart after an abdominal section, but without open- ing the diaphragm. Secondly, by abdominal section, and after opening the diaphragm seizing the heart within the pericardial sac. Thirdly, by resection of the chest wall, incision of the pericardium, and grasping the heart with one or both hands. If abdominal section has already been done, the first or second method will usu- ally be adopted, so as to avoid delay and the additional traumatism caused by open- ing the chest wall. If the operation which is being done does not involve an abdomi- nal section, then an independent quick section is to be made in order to get access to the heart. Of the successful cases, one of them, Starling and Lane’s (Case 16), was done by this method. In my own case also I practiced the same method, but I must confess that I do not think as a result of this one experience that the heart is so easily seized and manipulated as by either the second or the third method. In the second method, either a definite incision can be made through the dia- phragm to the left of the middle line and posterior to the border of the ribs, or, as in Poirier’s case, the finger may be thrust