Large pendulous tumor from the cheek, of many years growth, in a gentleman advanced in years, removed by operation / by E. L. Hussey.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Large pendulous tumor from the cheek, of many years growth, in a gentleman advanced in years, removed by operation / by E. L. Hussey. 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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    with temporary increase of swelling, in the upper part of the Tumor, and slight fever. This was followed by suppuration in what was thought to be a cyst in the substance of the Tumor. Some weeks passed before the discharge ceased, and the skin became sound. On Sunday the 28th of May (1876), in the afternoon, when sitting in his drawing-room, he held out his fingers with blood on them, and made the remark, — ‘ There; I have done it at last.’ He had long been in the habit of pressing, or scratching, the Tumor with his fingers; and he had been warned that some day he would make it bleed. Blood was now observed to be flowing freely from the Tumor down his neck, and on to his shoulder. The blood continued to flow freely, notwithstanding the attempts made by himself and his servant to stop it. At night Mr. Forster of Daventry was called. He applied a compress of lint; and the flow of blood then ceased. On the 1st of June I saw him, with Mr. Forster: and then for the first time I examined the Tumor, — or, rather, handled it. The Patient was weak, and seemed to be suffering from the lowering effects of the loss of blood. The surface of the Tumor was uneven, with several projecting knobs of different sizes. The skin over it was generally thin, and could be moved freely, except at one part, — the site of the former suppuration. Several large veins could be traced in the skin passing over it. The pedicle was thick and firm : it seemed to be formed by a prolongation of condensed tough fascia, in which two very large arteries could be felt pulsating. The lobe of the ear was spread out and lost in the skin on the sur- face. The Tumor hung down far below the ramus of the jaw; and, as the Patient moved the position of his head and shoulder, it fell sometimes in front of the clavicle and sometimes behind it, resting now and then