Diphtheria : its nature and treatment with special reference to the operation, after-treatment, and complications of tracheotomy / by Robert William Parker.

  • Parker, Robert William.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diphtheria : its nature and treatment with special reference to the operation, after-treatment, and complications of tracheotomy / by Robert William Parker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/202 (page 41)
    Complications and Sequels. Diphtheria, like some other acute diseases, is liable to be followed by certain complications and sequela?. It can hardly be said that these are pathognomonic, for, more or less, there is no one complication which can be considered as really peculiar to diphtheria. Even the sequela which is most common and most characteristic, viz. the paralysis, is found occasionally after other acute diseases. Asthenia.—This is a well-recognised clinical feature in diphtheria, which, though sometimes absent, should always be kept in mind by those who have to deal with this disease, especially among the young. Even in appa- rently favorable cases, asthenia may supervene quite suddenly, and be severe enough to cause death. It would seem to be due to the toxic action of the virus on the system at large. Yery probably acting through the ner- vous system, it must, nevertheless, be held apart from the neuroses, to which reference will be made shortly. This tendency of diphtheria to be complicated with this untoward condition appears to me to contra-indicate every kind of depressant remedies, such as emetics or blood- letting, once so extensively used. To antimony, as an emetic, I particularly object, and the use of leeches is, I think, contra-indicated for a kindred reason, Cardiac dyspnoea.—Every now and again cases are met with in which a most distressing and fatal dyspnoea supervenes. Largely connected with the condition of the heart, it is also in a measure pulmonary, the post-mortem characters being clotting of the blood in the right ven- tricle extending into the pulmonary artery, and softening of the heart-muscle. Whether the clotting is primarily a blood condition due to the diphtheritic virus, or results