Volume 3

Atlas of clinical surgery : with special reference to diagnosis and treatment for practitioners and students / by Ph. Bockenheimer ; English adaptation by C. F. Marshall.

  • Bockenheimer, Ph. (Philipp), 1875-
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Atlas of clinical surgery : with special reference to diagnosis and treatment for practitioners and students / by Ph. Bockenheimer ; English adaptation by C. F. Marshall. 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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    The period of healing varies according to the degree of the frostbite, but is usually longer than in burns and causes more severe after effects. General frostbite is common in severe winters among weary wayfarers who weaken their power of resistance to cold by alcoholic drinks. After the pre- liminary feeling of cold they become overcome by fatigue, fall down and become frostbitten. People may even fall unconscious without any previous symptoms. The body, lying on the ground, becomes cooled to below 20° C. (68° F.). Exposed parts may even become frostbitten by slight degrees of cold, acting continuously on the recumbent body. The nose, ears and hands then become frozen to ice and fall off when touched, while the blood becomes decomposed and contains ice crystals. This condi- tion may last for days before death takes place. Only early attempts at resuscitation can do any good in these cases. The heart is, however, so weakened that, even if the patients recover consciousness, they succumb some days later with delirium, coma and heart failure. The prolonged action of intense cold may freeze not only the external parts of the body but may convert all the fluid parts to ice. The expansion caused by the conversion of liquids to ice then ruptures the surface of the body. Patients who have been exposed to general frost- bite must not be suddenly warmed, as this may cause death from shock. The stronger the patient's con- stitution the better is the chance of recovery; but the prognosis of general frostbite is very unfavorable. Extensive paralysis (hemiplegia and paraplegia) may remain after recovery from the immediate effects, and the patients may suffer for years from headache, pains in the joints, and a tendency to local frostbite due to changes in the arteries. [These secondary phenomena may be due to frostbite acting as an exciting cause on pre-existing latent disease, espe- cially disease of the arteries.