The proper period for the performance of amputation in cases of traumatic injuries / by B.A. Watson.

  • Watson, B. A. (Beriah André), 1836-1892.
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The proper period for the performance of amputation in cases of traumatic injuries / by B.A. Watson. 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.

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    by a traumatic injury, exposed the patient unnecessarily to the dangers arising from inflammation, gangrene, diffuse suppuration, purulent infection and tetanus ; thus destroy- ing many lives which could have been saved by a prompt operation. This opinion, expressed by Boucher, has long since prevailed among French surgeons, who have unani- mously pronounced in favor of immediate amputations. Dubois, cited by M. Velpeau, asserts that the French surgeons during the American revolution in 1780, lost near- ly all their patients on whom they performed any amputa- tion, although the American surgeons who performed the same operations on the field, saved nearly all their cases. There is conclusive proof that the English Military sur- geons, even while the French Academy of Surgeons were debating the question of immediate amputation, continued to advocate and practice it in their armies. Dr. Hennen says : * “It is but justice to British surgeons, both naval and military, to declare, that immediate amputation is nei- ther a new doctrine, nor a recent practice among them. How long it may have been in use in the former service I cannot undertake to say ; but every naval surgeon with whom I have conversed informs me, that he always em- ployed the knife where its use was indispensable, at once,— which implies a much earlier opportunity than army sur- geons can possibly enjoy. To advert to the experience of our service in the late wars ; surgeons who served in 1794 on the Continent, assure me, that the greatest benefit resulted from immediate amputation, which they had re- course to whenever they possibly could. I have the author- ity of my friend, Dr. Pitcairn, deputy inspector of hospitals, who served as surgeon on the Staff of the Egyptian expedi- tion, to state, that whenever the surgeons could operate upon the field in that country they did so ; and, for himself, he only lamented that he could not remove more limbs in that situation, having never had any doubt upon the point, and being still more convinced in the justice of his opinion by the results of the deferred operation. On the first land- * Principles of Military Surgery, Phila., 1830, p. 55.