On gun-shot wounds of the extremities, requiring the different operations of amputation, with their after-treatment: establishing the advantages of amputation on the field of battle. To the delay usually recommended, &c. &c &c., with four explanatory plates / By G. J. Guthrie.

  • Guthrie, G. J. (George James), 1785-1856.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On gun-shot wounds of the extremities, requiring the different operations of amputation, with their after-treatment: establishing the advantages of amputation on the field of battle. To the delay usually recommended, &c. &c &c., with four explanatory plates / By G. J. Guthrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    32 6 blow. I entertained a hope of saving* this limb in defiance of the extent of injury, the axillary vessels, nerves, and tendons in the axilla remaining sound. I readily took away the displaced portions of the acromion and clavicle, by cutting down upon them; the extraction of the head of the humerus was more difficult, in consequence of its being firmly retained by its attachments in contact with the glenoid ca- vity of the scapula. “ The young man bore the operation with forti- tude, and no untoward accidents occurred in its performance; the first fifteen days were, however, passed ia extreme danger. After considerable swelling*, with pain, redness of the skin, fever, watchfulness, &c. a plentiful suppuration came on, with advantage to the' wound, and general relief to the patient. A part of the humerus, destroyed by the fracture, and afterwards a portion of the spine of the scapula, with the glenoid cavity, exfoliated. After this, the wounds soon cicatrized, the arm anchylosed with the shoulder, by the gradual approximation of the former, and this young man at last was perfectly cured, when he embarked for France with a pkrty of invalids, who were lost at sea, having never more been heard of.” The injury in the case of Jean Gravel was nearly of that nature which is attributed to the wind of a ball; and M. Larrey, in accounting for the skin re- maining entire except where it met with the resist- ance of the acromion process, explains his idea of