A probationary essay on the arch of the aorta, and great bloodvessels arising from it : submitted, by authority of the President and his Council, to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / by William Fergusson.

  • Fergusson, William, Sir, 1808-1877.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay on the arch of the aorta, and great bloodvessels arising from it : submitted, by authority of the President and his Council, to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / by William Fergusson. 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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    IT that in which we find three great arteries arising from it, one of these being the left Carotid. I late- ly met with an instance of this irregularity in the dissecting rooms. The left Carotid arose from the Innominata, about the middle, between its origin and division. The preparation is now in Dr Knox’s Museum, and there are several of the same kind in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. When this variety exists, the artery runs across the front of the trachea to get to its usual situation, and might he wounded in performing tracheotomy. It would also be endangered in the operation of oesophagotomy, and reminds the surgeon how care- ful he should be in this operation, independent of the caution required to avoid this artery in its natu- ral situation. Another variety connected with the Innominata, is that in which we find a small branch given off from the middle part of this vessel, passing up towards the thyroid body, close in front of the trachea. The artery in this course may either pass upwards as a single trunk, or, previously to arriving at its desti- nation, divide into several branches. In either case, it will require all the surgeon’s care to avoid opening it in his operations on the trachea. B