On congestive pneumonia, consequent upon surgical operations, diseases and injuries / by John E. Erichsen.

  • Erichsen, John Eric, 1818-1896.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On congestive pneumonia, consequent upon surgical operations, diseases and injuries / by John E. Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/26 (page 17)
    Pneumonia is but little satisfactory, the best-directed efforts being but seldom crowned with success. The prophylactic measures that must be had re- course to, in order to prevent the occurrence of the disease in question, are obvious. Patients who have suffered much from the consequences of capital operations and severe injuries, or who are worn out by irritative fever and profuse discharges, should be placed in a room or ward that is as freely ventilated as possible, care being, however, taken to prevent draughts of cold air from playing upon them ; they should be warmly clothed, so as to promote, as much as possible, the freedom of the circulation, and all depressing causes of disease must be care- fully removed. The supine position should also be occasionally changed for the lateral one, or, if the patient have sufficient strength, he may be seated partly upright. And I may take this opportunity of stating, that the starched or dextrinated bandage, the immovable apparatus, as it is called, may here be of most essential service, by enabling the surgeon to place patients, with injuries of the lower limbs, in such a position, and in such an atmosphere, as shall remove two of the most active predisposing causes of the form of Pneumonia now under con- sideration, namely, the recumbent position, and the comparatively impure air of a hospital-ward or sick- room.