A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, Joseph Bell [suggested reading .txt] 📗

hand, if not arrested, besides the risk of weakening the patient, we have to dread the much more serious complication of the admission of blood into the wound. And this is very serious in a patient whose respiration has already been much impeded, whose lungs are probably engorged, and who has certainly, by the mere existence of a wound in his trachea, lost the power of coughing properly; it must never be forgotten that a quantity of blood so trifling as to be at once ejected by a single cough in the case of a healthy chest, may be a fatal obstacle to respiration in one already weakened by disease. Thus any well-marked arterial hæmorrhage from cut branches, or from the isthmus of the thyroid, must certainly be arrested prior to opening the trachea. Besides this, blood once having entered the bronchi is apt to extend into their smaller ramifications and prove a cause of death, by acting as a local irritation, and setting up intra-lobular suppurative pneumonia. The author has found this to be the case both after tracheotomy and still more frequently in suicide by cut throat.

But, on the other hand, it is equally true that there is almost always a considerable amount of oozing from small venous radicles divided during the operation, which depends simply on the great venous engorgement resulting from the obstruction to the respiration, so that while to attempt to tie every point would be simply endless, we may be almost certain that the oozing will cease whenever the trachea is opened, and respiration fairly improved. Slight pressure on the wound is generally sufficient to stop the bleeding till the venous engorgement has disappeared.

Of late years many tracheotomies have been done bloodlessly by use of the thermo-cautery, for division of the soft parts, but the subsequent sloughing of the wound is a great objection to this method.

In cases of extreme urgency, all such minor considerations as suppression of venous oozing must be ignored, and the trachea simply opened as rapidly as possible. I had once to perform the operation after respiration had entirely ceased, and no pulse could be felt at the wrist, with no assistance except that of a female attendant. Merely feeling that no large arterial branch was in the way, I cut straight through all the tissues, opened the trachea, and commenced artificial respiration. The patient eventually recovered.

Question of Tubes, etc.—Once the trachea is opened, the next question is, How is the opening to be kept pervious? For the moment the handle of the scalpel is to be inserted in the wound, so as to stretch it transversely; this will probably suffice to allow of the escape of any foreign body. But where, to admit air, the wound is to be kept open, how is this to be done? It used to be advised that an elliptical portion of the wall of the trachea be removed; this, though succeeding well enough for a time, was unscientific, as the wound always tended to cicatrise, and ended of course in permanent narrowing of the canal of the trachea. It may be necessary thus to excise a portion of the trachea, in cases where it is very intolerant of the presence of a tube. Such a case is recorded by Sir J. Fayrer of Calcutta.[132] Not much better is the proposal to insert a silk ligature in each side of the wound, and by pulling these apart thus mechanically to open the wound. This also is evidently a merely temporary expedient.

Various canulæ and tubes have been proposed. The ones recommended by the older surgeons had all one great fault; they were much too small, and were many of them straight, and thus liable to displacement. The smallness of their bore was their greatest objection, and Mr. Liston conferred a great benefit on surgery by his insisting upon the introduction of tubes with a larger bore, and with a proper curve, so as thoroughly to enter the trachea. The tube ought to be large enough to admit all the air required by the lungs, without hurrying the respiration in the least.

There is a mistake made in the construction of many of the tubes even of the present day; the outer opening is large and full, while for convenience of insertion the tube tapers down to an inner opening, admitting perhaps not one-half as much air as the outer one does.

It must be remembered that for some days there is great risk of the tube becoming occluded, by frothy blood or mucus, especially in cases of croup, and in children. To prevent this a double canula will be found of great service, providing only that it be remembered that the inner canula, not the outer merely, is to be made large enough to breathe through, and that the inner should project slightly beyond the outer one.

The inner one can thus be removed at intervals and cleansed, by the nurse, without any risk of exciting spasm or dyspnœa by its absence and reintroduction.

After-treatment.—The after-treatment of a case in which tracheotomy has been performed demands great care and many precautions. For the first day or two the constant presence of an experienced nurse or student is always necessary to insure the patency of the tube. The temperature of the room should be equable and high, and it seems of importance that the air should be kept moist as well as warm by the use of abundance of steam.

A piece of thin gauze, or other light protective material, should be placed over the mouth of the tube, to prevent the entrance of foreign bodies.

In cases where the operation has been performed for some temporary inflammatory closure of the air passage, retention of the tube for a few days may suffice. It may then be removed, but it must be remembered that the wound will generally close with great rapidity, so that it is as well to be quite sure of the patency of the natural passage before the artificial one is allowed to close by the removal of the tube.

In cases where from long-standing disease or severe accident the larynx is rendered totally unfit for work, and the tube has to be worn during the rest of the patient's life, care must be taken (1.) lest the tube do not fit accurately, in which case it may ulcerate in various directions, even into the great vessels;[133] (2.) lest the tube become worn, and lest the part within the windpipe fall into the trachea and suffocate the patient.[134]

Laryngotomy.—As a temporary expedient in cases of great urgency, where proper instruments and assistants are not at hand, laryngotomy is occasionally useful, though from the want of space without encroaching on the cartilages of the larynx, and from its close proximity to the disease, laryngotomy is by no means a suitable or permanently successful operation.

In the adult, especially in males with long spare necks, the operation itself is exceedingly easy to perform. The crico-thyroid space (Fig. xxxi. a) is so distinctly shown by the prominence of the thyroid cartilage, and is so superficial that it is quite easy to open it in the middle line with a common penknife, there being merely the skin and the crico-thyroid membrane to be cut through, with very rarely any vessel of any size. The opening can then be kept patent by a quill or a small piece of flat wood. This simple operation has in many cases, where a foreign body has filled up the box of the larynx, succeeded in saving life, and even in cases of disease I have known it useful in giving time for the subsequent performance of tracheotomy.

Easy as it appears and really is, cases are on record in which the thyro-hyoid space has been opened instead of the crico-thyroid, such operations being of course perfectly useless.

The incision is best made transversely.

Laryngo-Tracheotomy.—This modification consists in opening the air passage by the division of the cricoid cartilage vertically in the middle line, along with one or two of the upper rings of the trachea.

It seems to combine all the dangers with none of the advantages of the other methods of operating. It is close to the disease, involves cutting a cartilage of the larynx, and almost certain wounding of the isthmus of the thyroid; and it is not easy to see what corresponding advantages it has over tracheotomy in the usual position.

Thyrotomy is an operation by which the larynx is opened in the middle line by a vertical incision, and its halves separated, while any morbid growths are excised from the cords or ventricles. The merits and dangers of this operation have been discussed at length by Mr. Durham[135] and Dr. Morell Mackenzie.[136]

Laryngectomy or Excision of the Larynx, first performed by Dr. Heron Watson in 1866, has been lately frequently performed for carcinoma and sarcoma. Each case presents its own difficulties, which vary according to the amount and extent of the disease for which it is done.

The trachea must be divided and tamponed by a Trendelenburg canula, after which the larynx must be carefully dissected out. The immediate mortality, i.e. in first ten days, is fifty per cent., and Dr. Gross holds that life has not been prolonged by the operation.[137]

Œsophagotomy.—This operation is very rarely required, and has as yet been performed only for the removal of foreign bodies impacted in the œsophagus, and interfering with respiration and deglutition. To cut upon the flaccid empty œsophagus in the living body would be an extremely difficult and dangerous operation, from the manner in which it lies concealed behind the larynx, and in close contact with the great vessels. When it is distended by a foreign body, and specially if the foreign body has well-marked angles, the operation is not nearly so difficult. It has now been performed in forty-three cases at least, of which eight or nine have proved fatal. Seven, along with another in which he himself performed it with success, were recorded by Mr. Cock of Guy's Hospital.[138] Three others were performed by Mr. Syme, with a successful result. Of the seven cases collected by Mr. Cock only two died, one of pneumonia, the other of gangrene of the pharynx.

Operation.—Unless there is a very decided projection of the foreign body on the right, the left side of the neck should be chosen, as the œsophagus normally lies rather on the left of the middle line. An incision similar to that required for ligature of the carotid above the omohyoid should be made over the inner edge of the sterno-mastoid muscle; with it as a guide, the omohyoid may be sought and drawn downwards and inwards, the sheath of the vessels exposed and drawn outwards, the larynx slightly pushed across to the right, the thyroid gland drawn out of the way by a blunt hook, the superior thyroid either avoided or tied. The œsophagus is then exposed, and if the foreign body is large, it is easily recognised; if the foreign body be small, a large probang with a globular ivory head should then be passed from the fauces down to the obstruction; this will distend the walls of the œsophagus, and make it a much more easy and safe business to divide them to the required extent. The wound in the œsophagus should be longitudinal, and at first not larger than is required to admit the finger, on which as a guide the forceps may be introduced to remove the foreign body, or, if necessary, a probe-pointed bistoury still further to dilate the wound.

For some days or even weeks the patient must be fed through an elastic