Case of wound of internal carotid artery successfully ligatured / by William Keith.

  • Keith, William, 1802 or 1803-1871.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of wound of internal carotid artery successfully ligatured / by William Keith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Eliza Kennedy, aged 25, native of Ireland, employed as a power- loom weaver, was admitted into the hospital on the 20th of December 1850, at 11 a.m., complaining of pain in the left side of the pharynx, and difficulty of deglutition, arising from the presence of a large pin wdiich she had accidentally swallowed the day before, about nine in the morning; at least she infers it must have been at that time, as she remembers, faintly, having put a pin in her mouth, and of being at the time seized with a fit of coughing, when, she supposes, the pin had slipped down. It was, however, towards three o’clock in the afternoon, before she was made sensibly aware of what had hap¬ pened, by a pricking sensation on attempting to swallow. She came at that hour to the Infirmary—was seen, and examined by one of the resident staff, Dr Rattray, who felt the head of the pin below and behind the left tonsil, but entirely covered by the lining mem¬ brane of the pharynx,—the pin extending downwards and forward toward the upper edge of the thyroid cartilage, in which its point seemed lodged; because, although the shaft of the pin could be felt easily, at the same moment, from without and from within, yet no ordinary manipulation could in any way alter its position. No operative interference was practised at that time. She was invited to return on the following morning at the hour of visit, and came accordingly, as stated above. On examination with a finger down the throat, and another op¬ posing it externally beneath the angle of the lower-jaw on the left side, a pin, at least one-and-a-half inches long, was distinctly felt, in the exact position which it had occupied on the preceding day. No part of the pin was bare, it was entirely hid, and covered by the mucous membrane of the pharynx. Several efforts were made to dislodge the point of the pin from its insertion in the thyroid cartilage, but in vain; and efforts were made to let the head present in the pharynx, by scraping through the membrane covering it. These having also failed, the head of