The individual as a surgical factor / by Antonio M. Crispin.

  • Crispin, Antonio M.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The individual as a surgical factor / by Antonio M. Crispin. 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.

    5/32 (page 3)
    a paying patient, the sooner he is out of the hos- pital, the quicker will he show his gratitude to the surgeon, and if a charity one, the earlier he be dis- charged the better for the institution. This preoperative preparation of the patient has reference to those cases which are to undergo a major operation and in which time is at our dis- posal. Of course it does not include the emergency operations, the so called imperative operations, where the nature of the cases is such that we have to interfere immediately to save life. The constitu- tional states which have to be corrected or elimi- nated if possible before attempting any surgical pro- cedure, are here given in the order in which it ap- pears their gravity demand. Renal Insufficiency. Probably no other function is of so much impor- tance to the surgeon, if we except the heart, than the renal elimination, and surely nothing has been more radical, nay, almost revolutionary, than the advances recently made in the conception of its pathology. It has been demonstrated that the excretion by the kidneys offers an invaluable guide to the con- dition of the system in general, and that the esti- mation of the functional capacity of this great en- munctory is of vast importance in determining the ■conduct of the surgeon. Not only in diseases clas- sified as nephritic but in every other disease, even without any demonstrable lesion of the kidney, is the estimation of this function of value. The urine may be absolutely negative as to albumin or cast, but suppression of urine may supervene after oper- ations, especially in persons who have a weak or fatty heart, or in whom the system is below par as the result of any chronic disease or inflammatory •condition of the liver.