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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    one ligature was tied, to enable the operator to adopt Mr Guthrie’s recent suggestion — (See Lancet, Vol. ii., 1850, page 145)—to bisect the lower jaw, and then lifting it out of the way, get free access to the wounded carotid, at a point sufficiently high to com¬ mand the hemorrhage supplied by collateral circulation through the head. The hemorrhage, however, ceased after the application of the one ligature, and therefore, according to all sound rules, further inter¬ ference was at the time uncalled for. The pin was allowed also to remain undisturbed. No subsequent necessity ever arose to warrant the slightest interference; but it is fair to state, that the case was watched day and night for some time, with all the instruments in the ward adjoining, in order to complete, with as little delay as pos¬ sible, an operation that was felt by the operator, for many days, to be, as it were, only half finished. To account, in the circumstances, for the complete arrest of the hemorrhage by one ligature, it may be sup¬ posed that the nitch (a) shape of the wound was favourable to its closing; that the pin-head, lying in or near the wound, would help to entangle and support a clot when once formed; and, lastly, the wound inflicted by the scissors was so far down, that it was thought by the operator that he reached up very close to the wounded part, and that his ligature may have been near enough to give a solid rest to any clot so formed. 257, Union Street, Aberdeen, 8th April 1851. MURRAY AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.