Huntsville gazette., 1889-01-12
AccIpkhTs IN SURGERY.
fDnfessions of Ono Of Germany's Mos
Eminent Practitioners.

AcClDkNTS IN SURGERY.
ronfessions of Ono Of Germany's Most
Eminent Practitioners.
A clever surgeon may often attain
wonderful results through single
operation; occasionally a disease of
many years. standing disappears at
pne stroke, and the subject is ''new
made DER again." the skilled operator
getting, very properly, all the credit
for the remarkable cure. 1t is not less
true, however. that accidents some
times occur during operations, in spite
of all the care of the practitioner,
which almost drive him to despair,
and not infreQuently prove fatal to the
patient. You seldom hear of such
cases, for naturally gentlemen of the
profession do not care to mention
them. Prof Won Nussbaum, of Munich,
the celebrated surgeon, is therefore
entitled to commendation for his can
dor in publishing an interesting article
entitled Accidents in Surgery" in
which he relates his own experience
and that of some of some of his fellow
practitioners.
What strange things will happen in
the operating room! 1t has more than
once occurred that the wrong tooth
has been extracted, especially when
the patient was chloroformed and
could not be questioned again at
the time. Once, however, a man
at the hospital had the wrong
leg taken off. 1t happened in this
way. A patient with both his feet
bandaged was laid ON the operating
table. Both legs were diseased; the
right one was considered durable, but
the left had to be amputated, as it was
supposed to be past healing. Unfor-
tunately, they amputated the right
until after the operation, when every
effort was made to save the left leg
the worst of the two-and with success.
In modelling artificial noses from por-
tons of the skin cut from the forehead
(rhinoplastic) it sometimes occurs
that, after the healing process, part
of the new organ mOrtifies. or that the
noble features collapses into shape
less lump and leans over to one side.
During an operation on the glands
in the throat, Nussbaum's lance broke
against hard substance in the center
of the gland, and the patient swallowed
the broken piece, which was about an
inch long. To prevent the sharp steel
causing laceration of the stomach and
intestines. the doctor made the patient
swallow a glass of sugar and water
containing tablespoonful of diluted
muriatic acid, and in forty-eight hours
the piece of steel passed without any
trouble and was found to be black,
rusty and blunt, owing to the
effect of the acid. False teeth
are often swallowed inadvert-
emily. Prof. Nussbaum mentions
a case where woman swallowed a
plate with five teeth which stuck firm
ly in her gullet, and could neither be
moved up nor down. AS she felt no
pain and was able to eat and drink.
speak and breathe without difficulty,
Nussbaum advised her to dispense
with an operation. And now the lady
has had the swallowed set of teeth in
her throat for nearly two years.
Nussbaum calls it an accident"
when a surgeon, in performing a diff
cult operation, leaves in the body a
piece of sponge, or a pair Of pincers,
or piece of india-rubber tubing,
thereby causing the patients death
through blood-poisoning, and there
fore recommends the practice of count
ing all instruments, sponges, ETC., both
before and after the operation, by way
of a check, for then you can easily as
certain whether you have forgotten to
take out something or not. When
chloroform was first applied, patients
frequently died under the operation.
At present, the deaths average one in
twelve thousand in cases of chloro-
form treatment. The professor closes
his article by stating doctors can learn
more from an unfortunate case than
from ten lucky operations, and that's
q comfort. t.-Berltner Volkszeitung.