Manual of Surgery eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 697 pages of information about Manual of Surgery.

Manual of Surgery eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 697 pages of information about Manual of Surgery.

If the patient can retain fluids taken by the mouth—­such as hot coffee, barley water, or soda water—­these should be freely given, unless the injury necessitates operative treatment under a general anaesthetic.

Transfusion of blood is most valuable as a preliminary to operation in patients who are bloodless as a result of haemorrhage from gastric and duodenal ulcers, and in bleeders.

HAEMOPHILIA

The term haemophilia is applied to an inherited disease which renders the patient liable to serious haemorrhage from even the most trivial injuries; and the subjects of it are popularly known as “bleeders.”

The cause of the disease and its true nature are as yet unknown.  There is no proof of any structural defect in the blood vessels, and beyond the fact that there is a diminution in the number of blood-plates, it has not been demonstrated that there is any alteration in the composition of the blood.

The affection is in a marked degree hereditary, all the branches of an affected family being liable to suffer.  Its mode of transmission to individuals, moreover, is characteristic:  the male members of the stock alone suffer from the affection in its typical form, while the tendency is transmitted through the female line.  Thus the daughters of a father who is a bleeder, whilst they do not themselves suffer from the disease, transmit the tendency to their male offspring.  The sons, on the other hand, neither suffer themselves nor transmit the disease to their children (Fig. 64).  The female members of a haemophilic stock are often very prolific, and there is usually a predominance of daughters in their families.

FIG 64.—­Genealogical Tree of a Haemophilic Family.

Great-Great-Grandmother Great-Great-Grandfather
Mrs D. (Lancashire) F M (History not known
                   .| | as to bleeding)
                   .| |
                   .+----------+-------+
                   ............|
                              .|
                           ....|
                           .+---------+--------+
         Great-Grandmother .| | |
           (Married three .F MB MB
                times) .|
                           .|
                           .|
      By First Husband .| By Second By Third
              ..............| Husband Husband
   +-----------+------------+----------+-----
--+-------+-----------+------+
   | .| | | +-------+-----------+------+
   M .F F F | | +------+
   | .| | | MB F Died in No
Died Grandmother | |

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Manual of Surgery from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.