Surgical notes of cases of gunshot injuries occurring during the advance of the Army of the Cumberland in the summer of 1863 / by I. Moses.

  • Moses, Israel, 1821-1870.
Date:
[1864?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical notes of cases of gunshot injuries occurring during the advance of the Army of the Cumberland in the summer of 1863 / by I. Moses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    the elbow were terribly lacerated. Notwithstanding this amount of injury, he steadily improved and finally recovered. After healing it was found necessary to repair the loss of the right angle of the mouth by a plastic operation, so as to enable him to drink without the fluid escaping. There was one gunshot wound of the should?.r-joint. Sergt. James Fisher, Co. K, 17th Indiana Volunteers. A minie ball struck the shoulder on the outer and anterior side, passed through the head of the bone and behind the scapula, at Liberty Gap, June 25th. He was brought to Hospital No. 1, next day, in a very prostrate condition ; but rallied during the next night, after being put in a warm comfortable bed, with good diet and anodyne. I found, on examination under chloro- form, a comminuted condition of the head and neck of the bone, and resected. (See specimens in Museum.) There was little blood lost, and he seemed to do well, but sank after twenty-four hours, and died. There were ten comminuted fractures in shaft of the humerus, of which two died ; on both of whom resection had been performed ; in one case by the surgeon of his regiment (2d Indiana Cavalry), and in the other by myself. Both cases promised admirably for a month, but finally feeling the influence of the poisonous atmosphere of the surgical ward of the Field Hospital, died of exhaustion. In another case of resection, George Dougherty, Co. C, 77th Pennsylvania Volunteers, I took away full three inches of the middle third of the left humerus. He entirely recovered, but his convalescence was retarded by a hemorrhage, which occurred a week after the operation, and reduced his general health very much. The other cases (seven) recovered without any operative interference, as is usual in this character of injury. No cases give more satisfaction than those in which the surgeon can save an arm ; and unless the parts are very much torn by shell or round shot, or the vessels and nerves injured, he may count upon a successful result. The introduction of the plan for saving arms in cases of wounds of the elbow joint by exsection of a part or the whole, according to the extent of the injury, has in many cases saved arms which but a few years since I have seen fall before the surgeon's catlin ; and I regret to say, I believe at this day I can see many a poor fellow with his stump whose arm could have been saved. It has been urged that we are called upon to amputate in many such cases on the field, aud the chances are better, especially where the wounded are obliged to be removed rapidly to the rear; but however good such reasons may be in gunshot fractures of the lower extremities, it cannot be applied to the upper. Of four cases recorded, three were reported as recovering, without any other operation than removal of loose spiculae. In the other, private Daniel Long, Co. D, 77th Indiana Volunteers, I removed about two and a half inches of the ulna, including the olecranon.