A treatise on the anatomy, pathology and surgical treatment of aneurism / by Antonio Scarpa ; translated from the Italian, with notes, by John Henry Wishart.

  • Scarpa, Antonio, 1752-1832.
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the anatomy, pathology and surgical treatment of aneurism / by Antonio Scarpa ; translated from the Italian, with notes, by John Henry Wishart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    ceiving the wound, the whole left lower extremity, from the foot to the knee, was considerably swelled. The following days the fever increased, with great prostration of strength, and the tumour at last was augmented to the size of two thick clenched fists. Such was the state of the case when I visited the patient for the first time, and directed him to be con- veyed into the School of Practical Surgery, where I undertook the operation the TZd of February 1794. Having made the femoral artery be compressed by a skilful assistant in the vicinity of the crural arch, I laid open, with one stroke of the bistoury, the large aneu- rism from the top to the bottom, making the incision pass through the middle of the cicatrix of the wound. Having evacuated a large quantity of clots of blood, and dried thoroughly the bottom of the wound, the injury of the superficial femoral artery presented itself to me, and it was a little more than three lines long in an oblique direction to the artery. I introduced a large probe within it, with which I raised it, and then easily tied it circularly, and in the usual manner, above and below the wound, leaving besides at the upper part a ligature of reserve.3' I filled the cavity with soft lint, and covered the whole with a compress and a six- headed bandage. After the operation was finished, which was of short duration, the patient fainted, but he soon recovered by smelling a little vinegar. He then complained of a troublesome creeping sensation through the whole At that time experience had not taught me the great advan- tages which are derived from the interposition of a roll of linen between the artery and the knot, in order to guard the patient against the risk of subsequent hemorrhage ; nor had it demon- strated to me the little or no use which can be made of the liga- ture of reserve on the occurrence of secondary hemorrhage.