On the treatment of aneurism by iodide of potassium / by George W. Balfour.

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of aneurism by iodide of potassium / by George W. Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and full of hope for those who, placed in happier circumstances, may yet labour under a similar disease. My second case, though more obscure in its diagnosis, was even more satisfactory in its results. Case II.—John Kerr, a seaman, aged 26, admitted into Ward VII. on 22d October 1867. He states that he has been ill for eighteen months, dating his illness from the privations to which he had been exposed when on an arctic voyage, and the strenuous exertions he was, while in an enfeebled condition, obliged to make in hauling the boats over the ice and frozen snow. While in America he has been somewhat roughly handled for various diseases with which he was supposed to be afflicted. At last the diagnosis cul- minated in that of aneurism of the abdominal aorta, and to get relief from this, lie crossed the Atlantic, and presented himself at the surgical wards of the Royal Infirmary here, and from them he was transferred to my care. He complained of intense pain in the scrobiculus cordis extending through to the back, and passing round both sides. On examination, a tumour could be obscurely felt a little below the sternum, and just under the edge of the right ribs; this was more distinctly perceived, falling, as it were, into the hand on turning the patient over on his left side; and in the situation referred to, a loud bruit was to be heard with the stethoscope. Not- withstanding the obscurity of the diagnosis in this case, it was con- sidered right to place this man under the influence of iodide of potassium, as a treatment likely to be useful, whether the tumour was solid, or was really an aneurism; accordingly, he got thirty grain doses of the iodide of potassium twice a day ; he was placed on fish diet, a restricted amount of fluids, and confined to bed. The result was most encouraging; he got almost immediate relief from the agonizing pain, while the uneasy pulsation felt by the man him- self was also at once considerably lessened, and the force and fulness of the radial pulsations, as observed by us, seemed to be also greatly diminished. He continued steadily to improve: in a few months the tumour and bruit had completely disappeared, and, on the 22d of January 1868, he was dismissed at his own request. He con- sidered himself so well, that he engaged for a short voyage for the purpose of testing his re-acquired health before finally proceeding to sea. This case is one, the obscurity of which is patent to all, and I am not disposed to press the diagnosis of aneurism; never- theless, the symptoms pointed strongly in that direction, while the success of the treatment, and the manner in which the relief was obtained, seemed also to confirm it. The thhd case is more unequivocal. Case III.—James Wilson, aged 44, a mason from Newcastle, admitted into Ward VII., on the 31st of August 1867. About nine months before admission, this patient began to have occasional