Surgical ward work and nursing : a handbook for nurses and others / by Alexander Miles.

  • Miles, Alexander, 1865-
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical ward work and nursing : a handbook for nurses and others / by Alexander Miles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    Raise the Foot of tlie Bed.—The object of this is to use the weight of the patient's body as a counter-extending force, so that the weights attached to the Hmbs will not tend to pull the patient to the foot of the bed rather than to pull on the limb, and so retain the diseased joint at rest. In hospital suitable blocks are always available for this purpose, but in private one or two bricks or blocks of wood will serve equally well. Cage.—After all is fixed a cage should be put on over the rope and tapes to protect them from the pressure of the bed-clothes, which of course would prevent the proper traction of the weights. After-Treatment.—As a rule, the comfort resulting to the patient from the apparatus makes him lie quiet, as only when he does so is he free from pain. In the early stages of joint disease, however, when the patient has not much pain, he may be restless, and attempt to move about. A long splint, applied from the axilla to beyond the foot on the sound side, will usually keep a child at rest, or if necessary he may be tied down by means of a sheet passed over his chest and secured to the sides of the bed. In all cases in which the leg is bandaged up, the toes should be left exposed, and should be examined periodically to make sure that no part of the apparatus is interfering with the circulation of the limb. Should the toes get cold or blue, or show any other evidence of obstruction to the circulation, the cause must be sought for, found, and rectified at once.