Читать книгу Elements of Surgery - Robert Liston - Страница 31

This disease is generally seated in the external cellular tissue. It has been supposed to attack occasionally the internal organs; and a case is related in which it was situated in the cellular tissue, between the vagina and rectum. Frequently the congenital marks of children, termed Nævi, degenerate into this disease: occasionally, though very rarely, it occurs in sound skin and in adults. A good case of this kind will be found in the Practical Surgery, p. 336. When the cutaneous tissue is involved, the colour of the tumour is a dark red, or inclining to purple; it is irregular on its surface, and has a soft, spongy feel. Often it is raised distinctly above the surrounding parts; at other times it is flat, scarcely prominent, and seems to enlarge chiefly in a lateral direction. The skin is then frequently unaffected; pulsation, in some instances, is perceived; often, however, the tumour is of an inactive character, affords no pulsation, and, on being handled, feels like a doughy, elastic intumescence, appearing to be composed of a congeries of distended vessels, in which the blood circulates slowly, and resembling varix. The tumour is formed by enlargement, tortuosity, and increased activity of the capillary and other vessels; in some cases the arteries are chiefly affected, in others the veins. That such is its structure, can be distinctly proved by dissection; the vessels are found enlarged to many times their natural size, and their coats are much attenuated; it is certainly not cellular, as some have supposed. The tissue is similar to that of the cavernous and spongy bodies of the penis, and has hence been named erectile. A natural structure of the same kind is met with in the lower animals in different situations. The tumour is much increased on the general circulation being hurried, as by crying in children, by fits of passion, by the excitement of ardent liquors or venery, and during or before the menstrual discharge. On such occasions the surface frequently gives way, hemorrhage ensues, and is often profuse; in females it sometimes takes the place of the regular discharges. The tumour, in general, increases rapidly in size, and bleeds from time to time; now and then, however, it becomes stationary, even in circumstances where it could hardly be expected, and remains so during the remainder of the patient’s life. Again, in children, the surface of the tumour is not unfrequently ulcerated, even to a great extent, without hemorrhage occurring; when such is the case, the ulceration for the most part extends, with surrounding induration and condensation of the parts. The whole or part of the adventitious tissue may thus be destroyed; the parts cicatrise, and a spontaneous cure is sometimes accomplished. In other cases, though the disease is not extensive, frequent and most violent hemorrhage occurs. A hemorrhagic tendency also occasionally occurs in affections of a different nature,—a trifling sore pouring out blood on the slightest touch. In some constitutions, leech-bites, trifling punctures, or the extraction of a tooth, have been followed by dangerous hemorrhage. The disposition very often exists in many members of the same family, and is sometimes hereditary. Great trouble has been experienced in staying the bleeding; large vessels have been tied without effect, and some patients have even perished notwithstanding every exertion on the part of the attendants. It becomes a difficult matter to treat surgical diseases in such constitutions: openings cannot be made with the knife for the evacuation of matter or any other purpose. A good case will be found in the Lancet, 1838-39.19 The same patient again presented himself with a very large and deep abscess of the hip, which was opened by caustic, though nearly one inch and a half from the surface. It is not easy to account for this disposition to bleed so profusely, or from slight causes. The blood is in a diseased state, probably as in the patient here referred to, in whom it contained pus globules, and coagulated slowly; there is probably also a want of tone in the vessels themselves. Many such cases are on record. The cause, or causes, of aneurism by anastomosis are also unknown.

In very slight cases of erectile tumour, or in nævus threatening to assume an aneurismal action, cold and pressure are sometimes, though very rarely indeed, sufficient for the prevention or removal of the disease. The most effectual remedy is excision, though this can very rarely indeed be had recourse to with safety; for when the disease is extensive, the vessels in its neighbourhood are much enlarged, and their action increased; so that any attempt to remove the tumour by the knife is followed by profuse, and often an uncontrollable, flow of blood. When excision is practicable, it ought to be accomplished by cutting very clear of the disease; the tumour, like every other, must be cut out, not cut into. If the incisions encroach on the substance of the tumour, or are made in the immediate neighbourhood of the diseased part, the tremendous bleeding which invariably ensues will convince the practitioner of the impropriety of his conduct, and rashness of the proceeding. Attempts have been made to arrest the progress of the diseased action, by tying the principal arterial trunks entering the tumour; but these have proved ineffectual, as might be expected, considering the unusually free and numerous inosculations which then exist. In a few instances, ligature of the carotid artery, on the same side with a tumour on the face or head, has put a stop to the disease; in the others, it has been unavailing.

When the tumour is so situated, or of such a size, as to render the expediency of excision doubtful, it may often be safely and expeditiously removed by ligature. In some cases the tumour is prominent, so that it readily allows of the application of a ligature around its base; in others, it is flat and broad; in which case, a long needle, or needles, armed with a double ligature, can be passed beneath it, and the ligatures can then be separated, and so disposed as to cause sufficient constriction of the entire mass.—Vide Practical Surgery, p. 331, 336. In many cases, incisions may be made with great advantage, either before or after introducing the ligatures; the diseased mass is thus more effectually included and strangled, and much pain and deformity are avoided. The disease, however, occasionally occupies such situations as are totally beyond reach. The application of potass has been recommended; and this caustic is certainly sufficiently powerful to destroy the diseased parts; but its use is attended with danger from profuse hemorrhage. Superficial nævi may occasionally be got rid of by the application of nitric acid, but it requires to be applied over and over again; and, after all, some more effectual means must probably be resorted to. Stimulating injections into the substance of the growth have been sometimes employed. Cures, it is said, have followed the use of setons, or the repeated puncturing and breaking up of the tissue with a needle. None of these means are to be depended upon. The cases are innumerable in which I have been obliged to employ the ligature in an effectual manner, combined or not with incision, where caustics, injections, puncturings, setons, and even imperfectly applied ligatures, had been previously resorted to in vain. Besides, in children there is as much resistance and crying, and as much anxiety in parents, produced by a slight operation, as by a more effectual one.20