Early history of the operation of ligature of the primitive carotid artery : with a report of forty-eight unpublished cases : and a summary of forty-four cases, with remarks, by Valentine Mott / by James R. Wood.

  • Wood, James R. (James Rushmore), 1816-1882.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Early history of the operation of ligature of the primitive carotid artery : with a report of forty-eight unpublished cases : and a summary of forty-four cases, with remarks, by Valentine Mott / by James R. Wood. 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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    operation until her sufferings became severe, and her danger imminent. Extirpation was finally undertaken November 4, ISO-3. In the progress of the dissection, the tumor was found to surround the carotid; and, to effect its removal, it was found necessary to sever the artery; accordingly a lig- ature was passed around it, and the artery divided. The wound rapidly healed, the ligature separating on the four- teenth day; the patient grew strong and hearty, and a suc- cessful result was anticipated. On the twentieth day, how- ever, a slight haemorrhage commenced from one of the anas- tomosing arteries under the fore-part of the jaw; no efforts were made to restrain the haemorrhage until the physician, six miles distant, arrived, when the loss of blood was so great that the patient sunk and died. First Case of Ligature of the Carotid for Aneurism.—The next recorded operation was by Astley Cooper, who ligated the carotid for aneurism of that artery. This is the first in- stance in which a ligature was applied to the carotid for aneurism, and is very properly the subject of the first paper published in that store-house of medical facts, the Medico- Chirurgical Transactions. Case.—The patient was a female, aet. 44 years ; the aneur- ismal tumor appeared five months before, rather above the middle of the neck on the right side ; it gradually extended, until it reached the jaw, and below the middle of the neck. The operation was performed November 1,1805, and a double ligature applied; except a troublesome cough, nothing unfa- vorable occurred until the eighth day, when her left arm and leg became paralytic. From this symptom she had nearly recovered, when inflammation of the sac and parts adjacent occurred, with great tumefaction of the neck, impeding respiration and deglutition. She died on th‘e twenty-first, day. Second Case of Ligature of the Carotid in this Country.— The next operation was performed in this country, by Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, N. H. To Dr. Twitchell, as to Abernethy, Fleming, and Cogswell, the operation was entirely novel. He was not then aware of its having been per- formed, as no case had yet been published, except Aber- nethy’s. This case was subsequently published in the New England Journal of Med. and Surg., Vol. I. We have before us the original manuscript of Dr. Twit- chell, from which the following abstract is prepared :—