Medical and surgical report of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals in the City of New York : 1911/1912.

  • Bellevue and Allied Hospitals.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and surgical report of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals in the City of New York : 1911/1912. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pansion, impaired resonance, feeble respiratory murmur and moist rales over the entire left lung indicating obstruction of the left main bronchus. The foreign body was removed through a low tracheotomy wound. Compared (54) reported the case of a boy seven years who aspirated a piece of husk. Intense suffoca¬ tion and severe incessant cough followed, then fever, chills and pains in left chest. The cough grew worse and was accompanied by, first, sanguineous, then purulent and finally fetid expectoration. The diagnosis of large abscess at left base was made. The x-ray examination failed to show the foreign body. Bron¬ choscopy was done with difficulty because of enormous quantities of fetid pus Fig. 14.—Case XIII. Nail in left bronchus. but during the examination the husk was found obstructing the lumen of the examining instrument. However, in some instances the severe symptoms due to foreign bodies of this nature after reaching a climax may gradually subside, either because of disintegration'or absorption. Thus in a case reported by Clay¬ ton (55) a boy of 12 years suffered severely from chills, fever and cough with hemoptysis, because of obstruction of one of the main bronchi in the right lung by a peanut. There was gradual recovery, however, due to disintegi ation of the foreign substance and expulsion of the fragments by coughing. In concluding the consideration of the primary symptoms and signs it cannot be too strongly emphasized that in many cases they are singularly mild and few, particularly in the early history of the condition. The exception is in the class of cases just narrated. Frequently even though the early period be stormy, the symptoms gradually abate so that a s'ate of comparative comfort