Volume 3

A manual of surgery : in treatises / by various authors ; edited by Frederick Treves.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of surgery : in treatises / by various authors ; edited by Frederick Treves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    acute purulent pleurisy arises, active surgical treat- ment is called for. If there is a wound it should be enlarged, and any foreign bodies, blood clots, or pus removed, and the cavity cleaned with some antiseptic lotion such as dilute Condy’s fluid or solution of bichloride of mercury; free drainage should be then secured. If the wound is in such a situation that it does not afford a proper aperture for drainage or cleansing of the cavity, a counter-opening in the lower part of the chest should be made. 4. Pneumonia*—All bruises and wounds of the lung are followed by a certain amount of traumatic pneumonia, which, as a rule, is limited to the injured area, and gives no sign of its existence unless ex- tensive. When the lung is wounded by a wea]>on which pierces the chest walls, and external air is admitted to the injured surface, or a dirty foreign body lodges in the lung, the blood clot that seals the wound and plugs the alveoli may decompose, and the irritating products of this change will excite a more intense inflammation with a tendency to spread and to run on to suppuration. But even in these cases the inflammation may be limited in area, and may after a time subside and allow the wound to cicatrise. Traumatic pneumonia is distinguished from idiopathic lobar pneumonia by the limited area of the organ involved, and by its occurrence at any paid of the lung without distinction. It may terminate in abscess, especially if a foreign body is impacted, or in gangrene; au abscess in the lung may open into a bronchus and discharge its contents through the larynx; or into the pleural sac ; or may burrow its way through the chest walls and discharge its contents externally. The symptoms may be entirely masked by other effects of the injury, for bruising and wound of the lung leads to rusty expectoration, and the existence