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VETERINARY MEDICINE SERIES
No. 9
Edited by D. M. CAMPBELL
~ WOUND TREATMENT
BY
LOUIS A. MERILLAT, V.S.,
E. WALLIS HOARE, F.R.C.V.S.,
AND OTHERS
Chicago
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
1915
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PREFACE
The treatment of wounds in the hands of the average
veterinarian has not improved as much in the last dec-
ade as have other branches of purely operative surgery.
A score of years ago, few veterinarians expected that
wounds made in the course of their operations could
be healed without infection. Now, the more successful
practitioners reproach themselves if a wound of their
own making develops sepsis. The treatment of acci-
dental wounds, on the other hand, is much the same
now in the practice of most veterinarians as it was a
double decade ago—that is, they are treated by
washes, ointments, or dusting powders, as the inclina-
tion of the practitioner may direct, and seldom is a
real conscious effort made to render them germ-free,
suture them up, and procure healing by first intention
without the development of sepsis.
This average of conditions is not true of the work of
all, and it is for the purpose of placing the methods used
by a number of the most successful practitioners in the
hands of the whole profession that this little volume has
been issued. It comprises the better articles on the use
of antiseptics, suturing and treatment of wounds in gen-
eral, that have appeared in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF
VETERINARY MEDICINE during the past four or five years.
The editor is convinced that the treatments herein given
are practical for the average practitioner, and their care-
ful study will prove of much value to him.
De M.-C:
Evanston, Illinois,
September, 1915.
n
a
CONTENTS
DISINFECTANTS AND THEIR STANDARDIZATION—By
UT CESS OTT SCTILS Sf) eae INS Mg aa oP EPMO, Ar aE aps a
BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES OF COMMON ANTISEPTICS
AND DISINFECTANTS—By H. Lothe and B. A.
eee ET sees cha chs oS aig Mee
ANTISEPTICS, PAST AND PRESENT, IN WOUND TREAT-
wy He Walls Hoare. : oss... 2 pic oes
SUPPRESSION OF HEMORRHAGE—By E. Wallis Hoare.
TREATMENT OF WouNpDSsS—By JL. A. Merillat........
Wounp Heauinc—By A. T. Kinsley..............
REPAIR OF WoUNDS—By William Brady........... :
SURGERY IN WOUND TREATMENT—By John Ernst...
PRACTICAL SURGICAL CLEANLINESS—By Mart. R.
[SET Gllc, (A GS ee he ek RON re ee
VULNERARIES—By Douglas H. Stewart............
PRACTICAL WOUND APPLICATIONS—By A. W.
EIU ATE | ey oc! [NRE Ne eal Oe GP UP a ee, vas ae
ABDOMINAL WOUNDS OF ANIMALS—By J. V. Lacroix
Weem dOmnrs By ds NI-PTrOst: 2... Shek ee be
OPEN JoINts—By Mart. R. Steffen...............
TETANUS FOLLOWING SuRGICAL WouNDS—By Henry
Ge ly SNE 2 ee Pe ras Bee eae) Sa
FAVORITE WOUND TREATMENTS—By Several Writers
65
125
131
137
145
149
153
155
165
173
LG
183
DISINFECTANTS AND THEIR
STANDARDIZATION
By WATSON LEWIS, D.V.M., Saint Paul, Minnesota
An antiseptic prevents the growth of germs, while a
disinfectant kills them. It is hard to say just where
antiseptic action leaves off and disinfectant begins,
for they are so closely allied that the terms are com-
monly used synonymously. It is a well known fact
that a substance may cause a marked inhibition of
bacterial growth and still be of little value as a germ
destroyer. For instance, turpentine will retard the
srowth of spores in solutions of 1 to 75,000, while
carbolie acid only retards in a solution stronger than
1 to 1,250. This powerful antiseptic action explains
the high efficiency of turpentine in flatulent conditions
both in human and in veterinary medicine.
Nothing is used more frequently in veterinary sur-
gery than antiseptics and disinfectants, many of which
are Standardized. However, such is not the case with
coal tar and allied disinfectants, for here no standard
has been adopted to protect the consumer against
fraud. :
These preparations are now offered on the market
at prices varying from fifty cents to five dollars a gal-
lon. The five-dollar preparation may be actually
cheaper than the fifty-cent preparation, because of its
germicidal value. Accurate test shows that there are
preparations fifteen to seventeen times more efficient
than carbolic acid, but they do not sell for fifty cents
a gallon.
5 WOUND TREATMENT
The question now arises, ‘‘How are we to know
the real value of a germicide?’’ In the last few years,
both in this country and in Europe, there have been
rapid advancements made in the accurate standard-
ization of disinfectants. It is time that the old state-
ments in textbooks that bichlorid of mereury kills
anthrax in so many hours, and Streptococcus pyogenes
in so many minutes, should be discarded. The results
depend entirely on the strains of the organisms tested
and the method used.
One strain of Streptococcus pyogenes may be killed
in five minutes while another, by the same method,
will require twice the time.
Carbolic acid and the salts of the heavy metals, such
as silver, copper, and mercury, have been mostly used
as disinfectants. There is now a tendency to discard
these for the more easily applied preparations, as their
general fault lies in their lack of efficiency in the pres-
ence of organic matter—that is, blood and pus.
Another group of disinfectants not used to any ap-
preciable extent but possessing high efficiency, is the
essential oils. They owe their germicidal value to
their phenol content, which, in some instances, is very
high. Thymol, for example, which is a phenol obtained
from the oil of thyme, is twenty-five times more pow-
erful than ecarbolie acid. It is unfortunate that the
expense of these oils and the inconvenience of apply-
ing them have limited their use, for they are only
slightly toxic, do not coagulate organic matter to any
appreciable extent, and are only slightly irritating.
The germicidal value of most of the commercial
coal-tar disinfectants is due to the eresols—paracresol,
metacresol, and orthocresol—which are variable in their
germicidal efficiency.
- DISINFECTANTS—STANDARDIZATION 9
Paracresol and metacresol have much more germi-
cidal power than orthocresol, and the amount of each
present in the coal-tar disinfectants may vary mark-
edly in different lots. Therefore it is necessary to
determine the percentage of each, in each lot, by frac-
tional distillation.
Several methods have been advanced for the testing
of the germicidal value of disinfectants, and lately
much work has been done toward standardizing such
methods.
The methods of the Lancet commission and Rideal-
Walker, and that of Anderson and McClintic of the
United States Public Health Service, have all been em-
ployed. The Anderson-McClintic method is a modifica-
tion of the Rideal-Walker method to eliminate some of
the variations which may be obtained in the use of that
test.
In all such tests the great difficulty lies in finding a
procedure by which the exact value of the disinfectants
may be determined, and a proper relative standard se-
cured in the laboratory.
It must be borne in mind that such a test, no matter
how painstakingly and elaborately worked out,.is at the
best but a laboratory test, and is only an indication of
the relative possibilities of the disinfectants under the
- varying conditions met with in practice.
However, it may be said safely that the Anderson-
MeClintic method gives a basis for successful testing of
- disinfectants and at the least will enable us to standard-
ize their action toward the typhoid organism, relative
to the action of phenol under the same conditions.
In using the Anderson-McClintic method it is most
essential that the exact recommendations of the authors
be carried out to the minutest detail. Lack of attention
to the different factors concerned in the examination
10 WOUND TREATMENT
of: disinfectants is responsible for most of the diserep-
ancies in results obtained by different workers with
the same disinfectant. Close attention to the details of
the method used is the only way in which uniform results
can be secured. :
The factors which bring about the greatest variance
in results obtained, and which must be considered of
the most importance in the conduct of the test, are (1)
the organism used, (2) temperature of the experiment,
(3) amount of culture, (4) amount of disinfectant, and
(5) the media used in subculture, (6) standardized
solution of phenol.
The coefficient obtained by different species, and by
different strains of same species, May vary greatly, so
it is essential that one species be adopted and the eul-
tivation of the strain employed be as nearly standard-
ized as possible. For this reason the Hopkins strain of
B. typhosus is best employed. It is cultivated on stand-
ard extract broth made from Liebig’s extract of beef
in accordance with the methods adopted by the Amer-
ican Public Health Association for water analysis. It is
important that the reaction of the medium be just 11.5.
One loopful of 4-millimeter platinum loop of the eul-
ture is carried over every twenty-four hours on three
successive days. Before being added to the disinfectant
the culture is filtered through sterile filter paper and
brought to a temperature of 20 degrees Centigrade in
a water bath.
One tenth of a cubic centimeter of the culture is used,
added to 5 eubie centimeters of the disinfectant dilution
at a temperature of 20 degrees Centigrade. Measure
the amount of culture with a pipette graduated to 1-10
eubie centimeter.
When the proper dilutions of the disinfectant to be
tested and the phenol controls have been made and
- DISINFECTANTS—STANDARDIZATION = 11
placed in their respective test tubes, all is placed in a
water bath so that the solutions may be brought to a
temperature of 20 degrees Centigrade. A standard so-
lution of pure phenol is made and standardized by the
United States Pharmacopeia method to contain a five
per-cent solution by weight. Dilutions are made fresh
from this each day. When everything is ready, 1-10
cubic centimeter of the culture is added by the pipette
to each of the dilutions in the seed tubes.
The solutions are planted from the seed tubes into
the culture tubes every two and one-half minutes up
to fifteen minutes, and for this a 4-millimeter platinum
loop, United States standard, 23-gauge wire is used.
In adding the culture to the dilution the best method
is to tip the test tube at an angle of forty-five degrees,
lightly touch the pipette against the side of the tube
below the surface line, and then shake gently. The
broth tubes are placed in the incubator at 37 degrees
Centigrade for forty-eight hours.
The mean between the strength and time coefficients
is used for determining the coefficient. To determine
the coefficient, the figure representing the degree of dilu-
tion of the weakest strength of the disinfectant that
kills within two and one-half minutes is divided by
the figure representing the degree of dilution of the
weakest strength of the phenol control that kills within
the same time. The same is done for the weakest
strength that kills in fifteen minutes. The mean of the
two is the coefficient.
As has been stated before, the coefficient simply rep-
resents the germicidal power of the disinfectant tested,
relative to the power of phenol on the same organisms
under the same conditions, and should be accepted only
as such.
Pall i ri c eit in mid vn a ‘. Th
Fo, 2 oe eel a4 Leeoe ied hoa e 3
a Vat aa ae 8 ae ‘
’ . - S wh a Fea
< 4 * “} tee
} Srey
Soe See
PY vs .
“a
12 WOUND TREATMENT
- However, it is ‘the best we have at present,
francs are due to Rideal-Walker and be
-McClintie for carrying us this far in obte
cedure by which we may begin to standar
fectants.
<<) ¢ pa ayy ae rte aga 3 é
BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES OF COM-
MON ANTISEPTICS AND
DISINFECTANTS
By oH. LOTHE, -.D.V.M., and B. A. BEACH, D.V.M.,
Madison, Wisconsin
A new era in surgery began with the work of Laster,
who in 1867 studied the effect of disinfection upon
wound healing and introduced ecarbolic acid as a dis-
infectant. As the science of bacteriology developed, our
knowledge of disinfectants and disinfection increased
and will continue to increase and may change as new
bacteriological data are collected that change the
science of bacteriology. It therefore follows that the
final word on disinfection has not yet been said, hence
a conclusive statement of our knowledge of disinfection
cannot be given. Nevertheless, sufficient experimental
data have already been collected to determine certain
fundamental principles upon which scientific disinfec-
tion is based. Judgment as to the value of any disin-
fecting agent must, therefore, be made largely from a
bacteriological point of view.
As we all know, the fundamental principle of disin-
fection is the destruction of bacteria by means of chem-
icals or heat (commonly called sterilization). In this
article disinfection by means of chemicals only will be
considered. Chemicals are used for these purposes: (1)
to render innocuous buildings and other inanimate ob-
jects that have come in contact with germs of various
infectious diseases; and (2) to prevent the entrance of
organisms to the animal body and to kill organisms
13
14 WOUND TREATMENT
that have already gained entrance to the animal body.
The latter concerns the surgeon, while the former is
a matter of primary interest to the sanitarian.
A veterinarian must necessarily act in both of these
capacities. The fundamental principles of disin-
fection are the same for both the surgeon and the
sanitarian, although each has peculiar problems that do
not concern the other. To the surgeon the question of
toxicity of the disinfectant to higher animal life be-
comes an important question, while to the sanitarian this
is not so important. The ideal disinfectant is one abso-
lutely non-toxic to the animal body but highly toxie to
bacteria. Surgeons are still looking for this ideal dis-
infectant.
Disinfectant and Antiseptic
For the sanitarian chemicals that kill bacteria are
ideal, and are known as disinfectants. Such agents are,
however, as a rule, too toxic for the surgeon, who uses
agents that prevent the growth of bacteria and are known
as antiseptics. The same chemical agent may be both
an antiseptic and a disinfectant, depending upon con-
centration.
Cauterization
The surgeon occasionally uses agents that are toxic
to tissues which are known as caustics. These agents
kill both tissue and bacteria cells, and conditions ob-
tain at times, such as bites from rabid dogs, when this
drastic method is of primary importance.
Factors Affecting the Action of Antiseptics
There are various factors that affect the action of dis-
infectants and antisepties, as follows:
: BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES 15
1. Type or OrGANISM.—In the early days of antisep-
sis, disinfectants were tested bacteriologicaily with the
idea of discovering some chemical agent that would
destroy all known bacteria when used in a weak solution.
No such universal antiseptic has been found. On the
contrary, it has been found that different antiseptics
have a selective action upon certain types of organisms.
For example, bichlorid of mercury is a most powerful
disinfectant for anthrax, but has only a weak action
on tubercle bacilli and is much less effective than some
other drugs (creolin, lysol, aleohol) for superficial dis-
infection of the skin, while ecarbolic acid is relatively
ineffective against tetanus bacilli, anthrax spores, and
tubercle bacilli. It therefore follows that in disinfec-
tion the different organisms and bacteria must be con-
sidered individually. In general, it can be said that
spore-bearing bacteria require stronger disinfectants
than non-spore bearers. Here again individual differ-
ences in resistance of species of spores and vegetative
forms manifest themselves. It is, therefore, difficult to
make a comparative table of individual drugs. In gen-
eral, the strongest disinfectants which also destroy spores
are mercuric chlorid, silver nitrate, iodin, creolin, lysol,
' liquor cresolis compound and other cresol preparations,
and formalin. The weaker disinfectants which kill only
spore-free organisms are coal tar, carboliec acid, salicylic
acid, dyes, boric acid, and calcium lyes (whitewash) and
acids.
Indiwidual Resistance of Organisms.—The individual
resistance of different organisms varies. Some infectious
agents are very readily destroyed while others are very
resistant. For practical purposes disease-producing
micro-organisms may be divided into two groups on the
basis of their power to resist disinfection.
16 WOUND TREATMENT
1. REQUIRING STRONG DISINFECTANTS:
Anthrax spores
Tetanus spores
Tubercle bacilli
Blackleg spores
Rabies virus
2. REQUIRING WEAKER DISINFECTANTS:
Glanders bacilli
Hemorrhagic septicemia bacilli
Abortion bacilli
Foot-and-mouth disease virus, and other bacilli
Pus organisms (Staphylococci and Streptococci) oe-
cupy an intermediate position. They are more resistant
than other vegetative forms but less so than spores.
They, however, require strong disinfectants.
2. TEMPERATURE.—The higher the temperature the
greater is the disinfectant property of a given chemical.
Practical application of this is made by having the
solution of disinfectants as warm as possible when in
use. |
3. CONCENTRATION.—The stronger the concentration
the more effective is the germicidal action. Creolin,
however, is an exception to this rule that concentrations
where emulsification is complete (two to three per cent)
are most efficient. Concentrations of ten to twenty per
cent are not relatively as efficient because a great per-
centage of the creolin is not emulsified and hence not
entirely effective. Stated in other words, up to con-
centrations where emulsification is complete, the disin-
fection coefficient varies directly as concentration, but in
higher concentration the ratio of increase is smaller—
that is, a twenty-per-cent solution has not ten times the
disinfectant properties of a two-per-cent solution.
4, DuRrATION oF AcTIOoN.—For action, a certain lapse
of time is necessary, which varies with the-individual
antiseptic on the one hand and the type of organism
on the other. With some disinfectants the action on
BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES 17
certain organisms is almost immediate, while with others
a greater lapse of time is necessary.
5. PRESENCE OF ORGANIC Matrer.—Under practical
conditions disinfectants are used in the presence of or-
ganic matter, and it has been found that considerably
higher concentration and greater length of time are
necessary for most disinfectants under such conditions.
Such organic material as blood, manure, and urine are
_ often present where disinfection and antisepsis are prac-
ticed. These contain chemical bodies that unite with the
antiseptic used, rendering it inert. It is therefore neces-
sary to use enough disinfectant to combine with the
organic matter and enough more to act as an antiseptic
and disinfectant. This factor will naturally vary with
the kind and amount of organic matter present.
To summarize, then, we find that the disinfectant
properties of any given chemical depend upon:
. Type of organism
. Temperature at which it acts
. Concentration
. Length of time acting
. Amount and character of organic matter
Or PO DO eH
Earlier in this article mention was made of the fact
that scientific disinfection was based entirely upon bac-
teriologieal tests. In determining the value of any given
_ disinfectant it therefore becomes necessary to take into
consideration each of the five above-mentioned factors so
that a comparison of different antiseptics can be made
on the same basis. It is necessary that they all act upon
the same organism, at the same temperature and con-
_ centration, for the same length of time, and in the
presence of the same amount and composition of organic
“matter. ‘e ,
18 WOUND TREATMENT
Hygienic Laboratory Phenol Coefficient
A method of standardizing or testing antisepties has
been developed and described by Anderson and MeClin-
tic in Bulletin 82 of the Public Health and Marine
Hospital Service, Washington, D.C., known as the
‘‘Hygienic Laboratory Phenol Coefficient’’ method,
which takes into account all of the above-mentioned fac-
tors. It is sufficient for our purpose at this time merely
to state how this method meets these requirements with-
out going into the details of laboratory manipulations.
1. Type of organism used is a twenty-four-hour broth
culture of B. typhosus (the organisin of ie
fever in a man)
2. Temperature is 20 degrees Centigrade
3. Concentrations of various strength ’
4, Length of time varies from two and one-half to fifteen
minutes for each dilution or concentration
5. Organic matter consisting of two per cent of peptone
and one per cent of gelatin is used.
To give more information regarding any given dis-
infectant, this method prescribes’ that ‘its germicidal
properties be determined upon typhoid both in the ab-
sence and in presence of organic matter.
For purposes of comparison the results are expressed
in figures known as the ‘‘hygienie laboratory phenol ¢o-
efficient,’’ which simply means the germicidal proper-
ties of the disinfectant in question expressed in terms
of phenol or carbolic acid, reducing the value of all dis-
infectants to a common language or medium of ex-
change, so to speak, just as the value of wheat, beef, and
Sasoline is expressed in terms of dollars and cents rather
than expressing the value of a bushel of wheat in pounds
of beef, or pounds of beef in gallons of gasoline. The
phenol coefficient, then, gives you the bactericidal prop-
erty of the disinfectant in question compared to phenol.
BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES 19
The table on this page shows the results obtained by
this method with a well-known antiseptic with which
many of you are familiar.
Creolin-Pearson—Results of a Test without Organic
Matter
(+ means growth; — means no growth)
Time culture exposedto -
action of disinfectant Phenol
for minutes coefficient
Sample Dilution 22.5 72 10 123 15 | 200+400
1:80 | —|—|— —_ —-——
Peg S5 S=S 80+ 100
SC) ee 1:100 | + | +) +/+] + | —|)-———-=
ze hoc il 2
1:200 |} —| —}|—}—|—|— | 2.50 + 4.00
I ec
Len Se) SS 2
S00 Se SS 3.20
Ecole coe. ee we LESS) | See Sse) 9)
E00 beet ete
1:450 | +} -+|+|+ ie
1:500 |+|+/+/+/+]+
Results of a Test with Organic Matter
Time culture exposed to
action of disinfectant Phenol
for minutes coefficient
Sample Dilution 24 5 72 10 12% 15 | 160+ 275
: 1:80 |—|—|]—|— | —| — |———_-_ ——-
Tai == ac ee ps | 80+ 90
eMCUOl ns ose Ge Usi sat Se) Se) Sei sees =
Peli s=)s= s= s5)s= == 2
13150 | —| —|—]| — | —] — | 2.00+3.05
1:160 | —|—]—|—|/—} — =
1:180 | + | — === = 2
1:200 | +{|—}—|—|/—|—| Pay
CSS ee 1:225 | +-4{+ |—/—]—|—
1:250 £4 a Is — =
Le2ff s=) 55) 45 == Sar
[1:300 |+)/+)/+}+)+)4+|
This table illustrates very clearly the effect of the
various factors that influence the action of a disin-
fectant. For instance, in the 1 to 80 dilution of phenol
20 WOUND TREATMENT
there was no growth in two and one-half minutes; in
the 1 to 90, however, there was, showing the effect of
concentration. The lower table shows the effect of or-
ganic matter. For example, it took the 1 to 90 dilution
five minutes to kill against two and one-half minutes
without organic matter, or just twice as long. The 1 to
100 dilution failed to kill in two and one-half minutes
but was bactericidal in fifteen minutes, showing the
effect of exposure.
Now the question arises as to what practical caine
such tables as these have. There are upon the market
innumerable kinds of disinfectants put up by different
commercial houses at greatly varying prices, based, not
upon their efficiency as germ killers, but upon the per-
centage of profit the manufacturer thinks he ought to
get. For example, mixtures containing varying
amounts of ecreolin are upon the market. All have
the property of forming a white emulsion with water
and in addition a more or less aromatic odor. The idea
seems to have gained precedence that odor and disinfect-
ing properties go hand in hand. The more penetrating
the odor and the more milky the solution, the better the
antiseptic, seems to be the belief. There are prepara-
tions on the market possessing both the latter qualities
to a superlative degree but having little action other
than imparting a pronounced odor to your medicine ease
and clothing. The only true eriterion of the value of
any given preparation as a germ killer is a bacteriological
determination. Every practicing veterinarian should in-
sist upon knowing the phenol coefficient of the antiseptic
purchased. The time is coming when all commercial con-
cerns will place the coefficient upon their labels, as some
houses are already doing.
When the phenol coefficient and price per gallon of a
number of disinfectants are known, it is possible to cal-
: BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES 21
culate from the price of pure phenol which will be the
most economical to buy. It is apparent to any one that
it is better to pay sixty cents a gallon for disinfectant
‘‘A”’ than thirty cents per gallon for disinfectant ‘‘B’’
if ‘‘A’’ has four times the efficiency of ‘‘B.’’
To determine the cost per 100 units of efficiency of any
preparation as compared to phenol, divide the cost per
gallon by the cost per gallon of pure phenol; this gives
the cost ratio of the two. The efficient ratio of the two
is obtained by dividing the phenol coefficient of the prep-
aration by the phenol coefficient of phenol, which is al-
ways 1, since it is the unit. The efficiency ratio is there-
fore always the phenol coefficient. The cost ratio divided
by the efficiency ratio (the phenol coefficient) gives the
cost of the disinfectant per unit efficiency of phenol.
Multiplying by 100 gives the relative cost per 100 units.
Thus,
Cost of disinfectant per gallon coefficient of disinfectant
Cost of phenol per gallon "coefficient of phenol (=1)
Cost of disinfectant per unit of efficiency compared to phenol
=u
Multiplying by 100 gives coefficient per 100 units of phenol.
For example, the cost of carbo-campho, with which
most veterinarians are familiar, is $2.50 per gallon and
has a phenol coefficient of .57; the cost of phenol is $3.25
per gallon,t and has a coefficient of 1. Then,
250 57
— + — = 1.33.
3.20 1
Therefore the comparative cost of carbo-campho per
unit of efficiency and phenol is 1.33:1; or, multiplying
by 100, we get 133:100, which means that $1.33 worth
1The cost of phenol is considerably higher than this at the
present time, $4.95 per gallon, due to the war conditions abroad,
but it was deemed best to quote the usual price rather than the
unnatural one due to the present war conditions.
22 WOUND TREATMENT
of carbo-campho will give as much disinfecting efficiency
as a dollar’s worth of phenol. Likewise, about seven
cents’ worth of crude ecarbolie acid will give as much
disinfecting power as a dollar’s worth of pure phenol.
Such figures as these are of value in determining the
most economical disinfectant to buy, based upon effi-
ciency and the price of phenol.
Naturally these figures will vary as the price of phenol
and other disinfectants varies, so that a calculation must
be made to fit market conditions as they exist. What
may be the cheapest antiseptic to buy to-day may not be
a month or a year hence. The following table gives fig-
ures for a number of antiseptics based upon prices to-
day: |
Relative cost
per 100 units
Efficiency of Efficiency
Disinfectant Ratio or Compared
Price per Cost — Phenol with pure
Gallon Ratio Coefficient carbolic acid
Crude carbolic acid’........ 60 .1846 2.65 6.9
FEY PENG ie 2 Oe oe ee oer oa ee .95 .292 3.56 8.34
Kreseo (PD: & C0552 2 1.15 .003 3.92 9.00 _
ZEDONG 8 tanta ote ee 1.25 384 2.25 17.00
Liquor cresolis compositus.. 2.50 .769 3.00 25.6
"PEMeFesOl + i.;o6%% ete ce caee 2k 4.00 1.23 2.62 47.3
CEG ' 355.04: 2 Pie aes es 6.66 2.04 3.25 62.7
DAWOL 92 x.c.ciely cantein chee sae 5.00 1.52 2.12 71.84
Carbo-canipho™ de..62 22s 955 2.50 76 .O7 133.3
Harhohe aed (35. > tatentses 3.25 1.00 1.00 100.0
In this paper we have endeavored to bring out the fol-
lowing facts:
1. That the fundamental principles of disinfection are
based upon bacteriological facts and not upon physical
appearance or odors of the disinfectant.
2. That the action of antisepties is affected by
1Phenol coefficient determined at Veterinary Science Labor-
atory, College of Agriculture, Madison, Wis.
2For phenol coefficient of other disinfectants in this table, the
writers are indebted to Bulletin 82, Public Health and Marine
Hospital Service.
‘
BACTERICIDAL PROPERTIES 23
(a) Type of organism
(6b) Temperature
(ec) Concentration
(d) Duration of action (length of time of action)
(e) Amount and character of organic matter present.
3. That there is a method of accurately determining
the bactericidal properties of any given antiseptic, known
as the “‘hygienic laboratory phenol coefficient’? method
and described by Anderson and McClintie in Bulletin
82 of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of
the United States.
4. That the phenol coefficient of any given antiseptic
or disinfectant may, for practical purposes, be defined
as the figure representing the ratio of the germicidal
power of the disinfectant to that of carbolic acid, both
having been tested under the same conditions.
5. That the only logical method of purchasing disin-
fectants is upon the basis of their phenol coefficients.
6. That the relative cost per unit of efficiency can be
calculated by use of the phenol coefficient. That is, the
relative cost of any number of antiseptics compared to
earbolic acid, thus telling you just where you get the
most for your money. Thus 6.9 cents will buy as much
disinfecting power in crude carbolie acid as 25.6 cents
spent for liquid cresolis compositus or $1.33 spent for
earbo-campho or $1.00 spent for pure phenol.
ANTISEPTICS, PAST AND PRESENT,
IN WOUND TREATMENT
By E. WALLIS HOARE, F.R.C.V.S., Cork, Ireland
In selecting ‘‘Antiseptics, Past and Present,’’ as a
theme for discussion, I venture to think it is one that
will prove of interest to every practitioner; certainly
there are many points in connection with it which offer
ample room for an interchange of opinions, ideas, and
experiences, the result of which is likely to prove useful
in our daily work.
I freely confess that one of my reasons for choosing
this subject is to ascertain as far as possible to what
extent the principles of aseptic surgery can be applied
to animals. I am quite aware that in certain quarters
it is held that aseptic surgery can be applied to animals,
and that failures in this direction are to be attributed
to want of care on the part of the practitioner, or to
prejudice. But in drawing conclusions on matters of
this kind it is essential to possess a varied experience of
surgery under conditions favorable and unfavorable,
both in town and country, and one important point that
I shall endeavor to demonstrate will be with reference
to the effects of environment and certain unalterable
conditiong that exist in connection with the treatment
of wounds in our patients.
- PROGRESS IN VETERINARY SURGERY
I have also another object in view: many medical men
and not a few of the laity hold the erroneous opinion -
that veterinarians do not take the trouble to practice
25
26 WOUND TREATMENT
aseptic surgery; we are constantly asked why wounds
do not heal by first intention, and why we do not adopt
this or that measure which proves so successful in the
case of wounds in man. For, owing to the spread of
popular knowledge, the ‘‘man in the street’’ now pro-
fesses to know something about surgical technic. Horse
owners, through reading various popular works on vet-
erinary science, pretend to know all about antisepties,
and the suggestions that are often made to us when
treating wounds are grotesque in the extreme.
My remarks throughout this paper will be specially
directed to demonstrate the fact that veterinary sur-
geons do appreciate the importance of aseptic surgery,
and endeavor to carry out its principles as far as cir-
cumstances will permit.
Let us first of all take a retrospective view of veter-
inary surgery as applied to the treatment of wounds.
That marked progress has been made is a fact apparent
to even the most pronounced pessimist. This advance
must be attributed to the discoveries of Lister. Although
the researches of this eminent scientist were directed to
the perfecting of human surgery, there is no doubt
whatever but that the application of his principles to
veterinary surgery has been productive of results which,
if they cannot be described as brilliant, are at least most
striking and eminently satisfactory. For, although ab-
dominal surgery and the surgery of joints are, so far
as the horse is concerned, as yet in a state of infaney,
every one will admit that canine surgery has advanced
by leaps and bounds since the principles of Lister have
been applied to it. And even in the case of the horse
we can justly claim that marked advance has been
made through attention to Listerian principles. Again,
a knowledge of the principles of wound infection has
enabled us to prevent the occurrence of those fatal
- ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 27
sequelae of wounds, such as septicemia, pyemia, and ma-
lignant edema, which were formerly so frequently met
with following accidental and surgical wounds.
Two factors were instrumental in the erroneous treat-
ment of wounds that previously existed. One was the
lack of knowledge concerning wound infection, nothing
being known with reference to micro-organisms or their
effects. Another was the prevalent idea that heroic
measures were essential to promote healing; hence the
employment of ‘‘black oils’’ and similar concoctions, in
sublime ignorance of the deleterious effects of irritants
on wounds, and of the existence of natural means of
recovery. |
The researches of Lister may be said to have extended
from 1865 to 1890, and it is recorded that even up to
1880 a number of eminent surgeons were incredulous
as to the value of the antiseptic treatment. Hence it is
not surprising to find that in veterinary: surgery up to
this period the Listerian principles are not universally
adopted. 3
It may truthfully be said that, as antiseptic treat-
ment progressed, from stage to stage, In human surgery,
its value was recognized by veterinary surgeons and its
principles gradually adopted. The earlier attempts at
antiseptic treatment would no doubt be considered crude
in the present day.
The Work of Lister
We read in the Lancet that in 1865-1866 ‘* Compound
fractures were treated by the local application of car-
bolic acid. The antiseptic was freely applied to the
interior of the wounds in order to destroy the air-borne
germs which had the property of causing putrefaction.
The opening in the integuments was then covered with
28 WOUND TREATMENT
lint charged with carbolic acid, and protected by an
external layer of thin sheet metal. ... In opening
abscesses a piece of cloth from four to six inches square
was dipped into a solution of one part of erystallized
earbolic acid and four parts of boiled linseed oil, and
then laid upon the skin where the incision was to be
made. One edge of this cloth being raised, the part was
incised with a knife previously dipped in the oil, and the
cloth was instantly dropped upon the skin as an anti-
septic curtain, beneath which the pus flowed out.
‘‘For the subsequent dressings a kind of putty was
made by mixing common whiting with the carbolized
oil, and this, spread into a layer about six inches square,
was laid over the incision.”’
From this simple and crude beginning evolved those
principles which were ultimately destined to revolution-
ize surgery, and render their discoverer the greatest bene-
factor to mankind that has ever lived. In 1867, carbol-
ized shellac plaster was substituted for the putty and
found more convenient, and during the same period
ligatures of silk or catgut were introduced, the latter,
however, not assuming their present form until 1881.
Even with the above primitive antiseptic measures a
marked improvement resulted in surgical work, and Lis-
ter recorded that hospital gangrene, pyemia, and erysipe-
las disappeared from his wards.
In 1869 gauze charged with carbolized resin took the
place of the shellac plaster, and various methods of em-
ploying carbolized oil and drainage tubes were described
in articles written by Lister for the Lancet. In these
articles were also discussed the sterilization and use of
sponges, and experimental proof was adduced that ‘‘the
septic ferments were solid particles and not some kind
of material in solution.’’ |
The use of boric acid as an antiseptic was also de-
a eS ae
_ ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT — 29
scribed. In 1879 improved methods of protective dress-
ings were introduced, to prevent the carbolic acid in the
external dressings from reaching the wound, once the
latter had been rendered aseptic by the primary appli-
cation of the antiseptic. This protective dressing was
composed of oiled silk coated on both sides with spe-
cially thick copal varnish and afterwards covered with
a layer of dextrin to insure its being moistened when
dipped into a watery solution of carbolic acid. In
cases where patients showed special idiosyncrasies to
carbolic acid, either salicylic jute or gauze charged with
a mixture of one part of eucalyptus and three parts of
gum dammar and paraffin, were employed.
In 1881 Lister delivered two addresses containing what
seems to be his first published reference to pathogenic
bacteria as a distinct class of micro-organisms; and in
1883 he demonstrated the success of wiring the patella
when antiseptic principles were employed. In 1884 he
drew attention to the uses of corrosive sublimate as a
surgical dressing. He pointed out in 1889 that sal alem-
broth was untrustworthy as an antiseptic, and in the
same year he introduced the double cyanid of mercury
and -zine as a reliable agent with which to render gauze
antiseptic, but pointed out that its germicidal efficacy, or
ability to destroy existing bacteria, was inferior to its
power of inhibiting bacterial growth; hence it was ad-
vised that the dressing should be moistened with a five-_
:. per-cent solution of carbolic acid before being applied.
‘In 1890. Lister announced that he had abandoned the
use of the carbolic spray three years previously, and
that he had substituted a solution of corrosive sublimate
for carbolic acid, having found the former less irritating
and more efficient; he also pointed out that the double
cyanid of mereury and zine could be prepared in a
perfectly definite manner, and although the new prod-
30 WOUND TREATMENT
uct contained twice as great a percentage of cyanid |
of mercury as was present in the substance originally
used, it had no tendency to cause irritation.
In 1907, in a note occurring in Sir Hector Cameron’s
book, On the Evolution of Wound Treatment During
the Last Forty Years, we find what may be regarded
as the final utterance of Lister. In this note he ‘‘advo-
cated the use of the double cyanid of mercury and zine.
He preferred the use of sponges for the absorption of
blood or other discharges from an operation wound to
any. of the substitutes that were proposed, while for
the purification and sterilization of such sponges, with
an especial view to the destruction of both the spore-
less Microcoeci and the spore-bearing tubercle bacilli, he
preferred carbolic acid (1 to 20) to any other germi-
cide. For purifying instruments, the hands of the
operator, and the skin of the patient he used a similar
solution, except in the case of the eyelids, when a solu-
tion of corrosive sublimate, being less irritating, was
preferable. ’’
In circumstances where it was impossible to exclude
septic agencies, such as in operations upon the mouth
or in putrid sinuses, or in certain compound fractures,
iodoform might be dusted on the cut surfaces of a
wound ‘‘after mopping with a solution of forty grains
of chlorid of zine in one ounce of water.’’ The useful-
ness of iodoform was, however, rather limited.
In the external dressing, gauze impregnated with the
double cyanid of mercury and zine was advised, but be-
fore being applied to the wound this gauze must be ren-
dered damp with a solution of carbolie acid.
To parts where there was very little space between
the wound and some source of septic contamination,
the double cyanid powder, mixed with a sufficient amount
of earbolic solution (1 to 20) to form a cream, might
_ ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 31
be apphed with a camel’s-hair brush. In some circum-
stances the cyanid powder might possibly be used as a
first-aid dressing by dusting it over wounds by means
of a tin with a perforated top.
‘* As regards the changing of dressing, when there was
a free discharge from a wound he preferred, as a rule,
to remove the first dressing after a lapse of twenty-four
hours, but a longer interval ought to be allowed after
certain amputations.”’
I have thought fit to give the above abridged history
of the evolution of antiseptic surgery, taken from the
biography of the late Lord Lister that appeared in the
Lancet. It will assist in the consideration of what
would appear to be the two schools of surgery of the
present, one termed the Antiseptic, the other the Asep-
tic; but, as will be seen later on, the differences between
them are more imaginary than real, so far as results
are concerned.
Terms Defined
As already remarked, during the course of Lister’s
career he had to submit to severe and often unjust criti-
cism, but this is the fate of all who attempt to leave
the beaten track. One of his opponents pointed out in
1867 that Lister was not the first surgeon to use carbolic
acid, but this was already admitted. It is also recorded
that Sir William Savory (who was president of the Royal
- College of Surgeons for five years in succession, and full
surgeon at Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital from 1867 to
1891), at the meeting of the British Medical Association
héld at Cork in 1879 delivered the address on ‘‘Surgery”’
and spoke in attack or ridicule of the system of anti-
septic surgery. I introduce this matter in order to show
that surprise should not be expressed if examples of
similar opposition existed among veterinary surgeons;
32 WOUND TREATMENT
that such did exist I have no doubt, but at present there
are few practitioners who deny the benefits of Listerian
principles.
In order to comprehend the principles of the modern
treatment of wounds, and to compare the antiseptic
methods with those designated as aseptic, it is necessary
to consider briefly the significance of certain terms that
are employed in connection with the subject. Unfor-
tunately, it happens that the same term is occasionally
applied in more senses than one, or has a different
meaning attached to it by various authors.
The term septic was formerly applied to wounds of
an offensive character, which were frequently associated
with septicemia, pyemia, and similar conditions. But
as it is recognized now that the above conditions arise
from the action of pus-producing organisms, the term
septic is generally applied to all suppurating wounds.
Recognizing, however, that wounds may be offensive
and distinctly unhealthy, without any evidences of the
presence of pus, it is clear that septic can be applied
to conditions depending on a variety of micro-organisms.
In many eases the septic condition of a wound depends
on one pathogenic organism, but in almost every in-
stance ordinary pyogenic organisms are present, asso-
ciated with those characteristic of sepsis.
In practice, however, we are generally inclined to ap-
ply the term septic to a putrid condition of a wound,
associated or not with the presence of pus. As a large
number of accidental wounds in the horse heal by granu-
lation but not under aseptic conditions, suppuration to
a varying extent is common, but the pus is not offensive,
the wound tends to heal with ordinary care, and we do
not apply the term septic to it, although certainly it
could not be described as aseptic. As I shall point out
later on, a large number of accidental wounds in horses
ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 33
are already infected before the practitioner gets the
chance of treating them.
Aseptic signifies the absence of sepsis—that is, the
absence of micro-organisms of any kind. The term is
synonymous with ‘‘sterile,’’ or ‘‘germ-free.’’
Antiseptic is a term that is often loosely applied:
literally it signifies anything opposed to sepsis; in a
bacteriological sense, it indicates an agent that retards
or prevents the development of bacteria, irrespective
of its power of destroying their vitality. But it is
often erroneously applied as synonymous with germi-
cide, whereas a large number of agents classed as anti-
septics are not capable of destroying pathogenic bacteria.
Disinfectant is a term applied to an agent capable of
destroying infective micro-organisms, and so far as path-
ogenic bacteria are concerned it is synonymous with
germicide. Therefore all disinfectants are antiseptics,
but not all antiseptics are disinfectants.
Deodorant is a term applied to substances that are
capable of destroying or removing offensive or unpleas-
ant odors, but it does not follow that they possess dis-
-infecting properties. Many disinfectants, however, are
also deodorants. |
Two ‘‘Schools’’ of Surgery
It will now be necessary to devote a little attention
to the significance of the terms aseptic surgery and anti-
septic surgery. :
To such an extent has the subject: been debated that
two so-called ‘‘schools’’ have resulted, and even the
are not in agreement as to the precise sense in which
the term aseptic should be employed. There is in fact
a decided antagonism between these schools as to the
_ technic which is best calculated to bring about success-
34 WOUND TREATMENT
ful results, for be it remembered that both aim at the
prevention of infection in wounds and thus endeavor
to promote healing in the shortest time possible. Briefly
speaking, the aseptic system aims at preventing the
access of pathogenic bacteria to wounds; it embraces all
the measures adopted to keep the wound aseptic, or free
from the ill effects of septic organisms, throughout its
entire course. Antiseptics, except for sterilizing the
patient’s skin, the hands of the surgeon, or in the
process of sterilizing ligatures, are rigidly excluded,
and not permitted to come in contact with operation ~
wounds. None of the materials used, such as ligatures,
sutures, and dressings, contain antiseptics, but are simply
sterilized. The instruments are sterilized by boiling,
and are not placed in an antiseptic solution.
Of course, the aseptic method can be applied only to
operation wounds made through unbroken skin into
non-infected tissues. The disciples of the aseptic school
term the methods in which antiseptics are employed,
either in solutions or dressings, as antiseptic methods.
Some even go further than this, for we find one surgeon,
Mr. Burghard, stating that the term antiseptic, when
applied to the treatment of wounds, ‘‘should be reserved
for those measures designed to combat sepsis already
present in a wound.’’
The antiseptic school, however, claim that their meth-
ods are also aseptic, although as a means of precaution
they employ antiseptics in addition to the means of
securing asepsis. Sir Watson Cheyne, one of the ad-
voeates for this method, states:
‘“ Aseptic surgery is the method of treatment directed
to the maintenance of an aseptic condition in the tis-—
sues of the wound presumably existing at the time of
operation. ... But on the other hand, antiseptic sur-
gery has to deal with tissues which have already been
a a a
_ ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 30
infected, with or without a breach of the surface, and
here the surgeon’s efforts are directed to diminishing
the effects of already existing sepsis, or it may be in a
few cases even to eradicating it.”’
Mr. Lockwood, who steers a middle course, says in his
work on Aseptic Surgery, ‘‘Any method of wound treat-
ment which aims at sterility will be called aseptic.”’
The ‘‘bone of contention’’ between these two systems
would appear to be the question of the employment of
antiseptics; those of the aseptic school holding that
these agents, by causing irritation, interfere with the
normal powers of resistance of the tissues, and thus re-
tard healing. This weakening of the resisting power
of the tissues may even enable micro-organisms to enter
and take effect, in cases where surgical cleanliness was
neglected, although antiseptics were employed.
Sir Watson Cheyne, however, points out in the Brad-
shaw Lecture on the Treatment of Wounds (1908), that
the Listerian principles in wound treatment include two
important postulates:
1. Exclusion of bacteria especially of pathogenic organisms, as
far as possible during and after an operation.
2. Avoidance of irritation of the surface of a wound, so as not
‘to interfere with healing or with the powers of the tissues,
to prevent the growth of any bacteria which have entered.
This authority clearly explains that, by the Listerian
system, every precaution is taken to prevent irritation
- from the antiseptics employed, and also states that, even
with adherence to the strict principles of the so-called
aseptic system, suppuration has occurred when opera-
tions were carried out in regions other than the peri-
toneum. He believes ‘‘that of late many surgeons have
gone to extremes in the avoidance of antiseptic solu-
tion,’’ and that the aseptic system, so called, is ‘‘only
carrying to an extreme the principle of avoiding irri-
36 WOUND TREATMENT
tation of wounds.’’ He also shows that even the appli-
cation of plain boiled water to the surface of a wound
interferes with the integrity of leukocytes and other
cells, for under the microscope they are found to swell
up rapidly and become completely disintegrated. In
summing up his criticism he states that ‘‘the pendulum
has swung too far in the direction of the avoidance of
antiseptics, and that the reasonable use of all the means
at our disposal for securing asepticity of wounds will
furnish more constant results.’’ He also adds: ‘‘The
chief point to which I take exception is the employment
of dressings which do not contain an antiseptic in suffi-
cient amount to render the discharges which flow through
them unsuitable for the growth of bacteria.’’ When a
dressing not containing an antiseptic, although sterile,
becomes soaked with discharge, the latter may remain
sterile until it comes near the surface of the dressing,
but then bacteria will grow into and rapidly spread
through it and reach the wound, unless the blood has in
the meantime become so concentrated by drying that
it is no longer a suitable cultivating medium.
A second point is the absence of antiseptic solutions
during the operation, in which hands and instruments
may be washed from time to time to insure continued
asepsis. ‘‘The attempt to treat wounds without any
antiseptics is a very unnecessary complication. In the
first place, it is ever so much more difficult to secure
asepticity of a wound under such circumstances than
if.one takes advantage of antiseptics, and in the second
place it requires a man who is especially skilled in bae-
teriological work, to bear in mind the various loopholes
which have to be guarded against in order to obtain a
constant aseptic result. ... I confess that I can see
no reason for this great dread of a drop of antiseptic ma-
terial getting into a wound; I can only say that my own
_ ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 37
results, and those of surgeons who use antiseptics judi-
ciously, are in every way as good as those obtained with
the more elaborate aseptic precautions; in fact, seeing
that we are not troubled with sepsis or stitch abscess at
all, I venture to assert that they are better, because they
are more constant and dependable.’’ |
Rose and Carless, contrasting aseptic and antiseptic
surgery, in their Manual of Surgery state:
“Tt is only natural that we who have had the privi-
lege of working with Lord Lister, and have seen the ex-
cellent results following the intelligent use of anti-
septics as mapped out above, should still cling to that
line of practice which certainly can be carried out with
more precision under all circumstances, both in private
and hospital, than the other plan, the objects of which
may at any moment be defeated by some slight inadver-
tence or oversight. The theory of asepsis is no doubt
perfect, but its practical application is often difficult
owing to the necessity of having sterilizers always at
hand, a matter almost impossible in cases of emergency,
in private practice.”’
Measures Attempted
I have deemed it advisable to quote the opinions of
the above eminent surgeons on the subject of aseptic and
antiseptic surgery before proceeding to consider how
far the principles can be applied in veterinary surgery.
I shall endeavor to show that, although in the case of
the dog it is possible to carry out perfect aseptic prin-
ciples under proper surroundings, it is a far different
matter when we come to deal with equine surgery. I
suppose it will be generally admitted that in the treat-
ment of wounds in horses there are certain important
indications to be fulfilled.
38 WOUND TREATMENT
Measures should be adopted which are lkely to in-
sure the healing of wounds in as short a time as possible,
so that the animal can return to work. )
Steps should be taken to prevent serious complications
such as septicemia, pyemia, malignant edema, erysipelas,
bacillary necrosis, and tetanus.
Measures for the prevention of permanent blemishes
are of importance, and in the case of wounds affecting
the limbs, every effort should be made to avoid the oceur-
rence of conditions likely to interfere with the working
powers of the animal.
Human and Veterinary Surgery Contrasted
Here it will be necessary to compare human surgery
and veterinary surgery as regards the treatment of
wounds, both accidental and as the result of opera-
tions. The distinguishing features that stand out
pre-eminently are the following. The human surgeon
has the advantage of a well-equipped hospital with
all modern conveniences, and a staff of trained nurses
to carry out his instructions. He is supplied with
every detail calculated to insure surgical cleanliness
and to exert a favorable influence on the course
of wounds. Moreover, in operation wounds, aseptie prin-
ciples are carried out from start to finish by trained
hands, and the patients contribute to favorable results
by obeying the instructions of the surgeon. By complete
rest the healing of wounds is facilitated, and means ean
be adopted by which the affected part is rendered as free
from movement as possible.
In the case of accidental wounds, early treatment is
carried out before sepsis has had time to exert its effects,
even though micro-organisms have gained an entrance.
The veterinary surgeon, on the other hand, has the most
ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 39
adverse circumstances to contend with in his endeavors
to render wounds, whether surgical or accidental, aseptic,
and to keep them in this condition. Even in the best
equipped veterinary infirmaries, so far as horses are
concerned, it is extremely difficult to carry out aseptic
surgery. No doubt by the use of iodin it is now possible
to sterilize the skin, but there are other points to be con-
sidered. .
Given an operating table, and a trained staff of assist-
ants, so that the operator is concerned only with the
operation, and the certainty that the operator or his
assistants will carry out the subsequent dressings of the
wound, then indeed aseptic surgery and healing by first
intention are possible, provided the technic is carried
out so that the entry of micro-organisms is prevented.
Hindrances to Aseptic Surgery
But in ordinary practice a very different state of
affairs exists; the patient is cast on a bed of straw,
skilled assistants are not at hand, so that the operator
has to attend to the casting, securing, and so forth,
of the animal, by which means his hands become econ-
taminated, and even the best directed attempts at asepsis
are likely to be frustrated by the clumsy actions of the
assistants. Then again, unless the practitioner is able
to earry out the after-treatment of the case, his primary
endeavors will fail, as contamination of the wound is
certain to occur.
With reference to accidental wounds, it is quite ap-
parent that they become infected before professional
assistance is sought. Contamination occurs at the time
the injury is inflicted, and also from the treatment
adopted by the owner or attendant.
Consider also the surroundings in which horses are
4() WOUND TREATMENT
placed; even with the most scrupulous care and atten-
tion, it is impossible to render the best planned stall
free from micro-organisms, and every act of the attend-
ant seems calculated to secure infection of the wound.
As for the average stable, both in town and country,
and the erude methods of treatment adopted by the
owners of animals, the wonder is that serious or fatal
sequele are not more common. For not only is the
stall a veritable breeding ground for micro-organsims,
but also everything brought in contact with the wound
is teeming with germs. Hands begrimed with dirt, filthy
sponges, dirty stable buckets, and soiled bandages are
much in evidence, while often even the water for per-
forming the perfunctory cleansing of the wound is any-
thing but pure. How, then, do wounds heal under such
circumstances? I think you will agree that the explana-
tion is to be found in the natural powers of resistance
possessed by the horse. If this vital resistance to the
action of micro-organisms did not exist, we should meet
with far more cases of septicemia, pyemia, and similar
conditions, than we do at present.
No doubt of late years it is not unusual to find disin-
fectants in the hands of many owners of animals, and
these agents are applied to wounds in concentrated solu-
tions with a total disregard for ordinary cleanliness.
The result is that instead of promoting healing they re-
tard it, as they exert a caustic and irritant action on
the tissues. At the same time the deeper portions of
the wounds are not cleansed and abound in micro-
organisms.
A similar error is committed with reference to the dis-
infection of stable floors, the dirty surface being allowed
to remain while disinfectants are scattered thereon.
Then again, while wounds are being dressed it is not
uncommon to find the dressings laid on the stable floor
— | SSS eee
ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 4]
for convenience and thus exposed to contamination from
several sources.
Varieties of Wound Infection
It will now be of advantage to consider as briefly as
possible the measures that can be adopted in order to
fulfill the indications I have mentioned. In order to
fully grasp the importance of attention to surgical clean-
liness, and the judicious employment of antiseptics in the
treatment of wounds, it will be necessary to consider the
micro-organisms of wounds, the modes of infection, and
the means by which these can be overcome.
With reference to micro-organisms, the most important
are the pyogenic cocci; these include the following
Staphylococci and Streptococci:
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus is found in acute
abscesses and is responsible for the majority of suppu-
rative inflammations. It is occasionally present in gen-
eral pyemia, and is often associated with other pyogenic
organisms in suppurative processes. It is very resistant
to many antiseptics, but is readily detroyed by solutions
of the more powerful germicides; it is very widely dis-
tributed, and is found abundantly in the superficial
layers of the skin of animals and frequently beneath the
fingernails in man. Experiments have demonstrated its
power of producing suppuration, both locally and inter-
nally, and it has been shown that if the vitality of the
parts experimented on has been previously lowered, or
the tissues damaged by chemical or mechanical means,
infection occurs more certainly and readily.
Staphylococcus pyogenes albus is similar to but far
less virulent in its action than S. aureus.
Staphylococcus pyogenes citreus is found only in ab-
scesses.
42 WOUND TREATMENT
.. Streptococcus. pyogenes is another very important or-
ganism. It is the causal agent in spreading. cellular
inflammation, and of pyemia and septicemia in many in-
stances; also of septic metritis, and ulcerative endo-
carditis. One of its peculiarities is its tendency to invade
the lymphatics and to induce lymphangitis and cellulitis;
another is its capability of producing acute suppuration,
sloughing of the. tissues, and inflammatory wound-
gangrene. Probably there are many varieties of Strepto-
cocci, but their characters resemble each other so closely
that it has not been possible to isolate them. Thus the
S. erysipelatis, the causal agent of erysipelas, resem-
bles so closely, both in appearance and cultural charac-
ters, the S. pyogenes, that many authorities regard them
as identical. The effects produced, however, are rather
distinctive, and the S. erysipelatis must be regarded as
an organism of serious importance in connection with
the treatment of wounds.
The powers of resistance of Streptococci must be re-
garded as feeble when compared with those of
Staphylococci.
Bacilli of importance in connection with wound infee-
tion are the tetanus bacillus, the bacillus of necrosis,
(B. necrophorus), the bacillus of malignant edema, and
the bacillus coli communis. Occasionally the bacillus
tuberculosis and the bacillus (Pseudomonas) pyocyaneus
may infect wounds. Among other causal agents in
wound infection we may mention the Botryomyces and
the Actinomyces, also the Streptococcus equi, the causa-
tive factor in strangles or colt distemper.
With such a formidable list of micro-organisms before
us, it is apparent that the most important part of our
duties in connection with the treatment of wounds is
to prevent the entrance of these microbes so far as is
possible, or, failing in this, to destroy their vitae or
retard or prevent their development.
ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 43
The following modes of infection merit consideration :
1. INFEcTION By ArIR.—Aerial infection was recognized
even in prescientific periods. The Listerian principles
and the carbolic spray were directed against this mode
of infection, and the air was regarded as containing
the germs of putrefaction, which were capable of setting
up septic processes in wounds and their secretions. This
view has been considerably modified in the present day.
Experiments have demonstrated that the greater num-
ber of bacteria present in the air are non-pathogenic,
that germs exist in the atmosphere only in the form of
dry dust, that air perfectly freed from dust is harmless
to wounds, and when the air is kept still, wound infec-
tion rarely takes place through the atmosphere. But
when we consider the surroundings of horses, the dust
raised from a straw bed and during the process of clean-
ing the stall, we must admit the possibility of infection
by air containing dust. Indeed, some observers state
that they have found cocci closely related to the pyogenic
varieties, and sometimes actually belonging to that class,
in atmosphere dust, especially when the air is moist.
2. INFECTION BY WaTeEeR.—Infection by means of the
water used occurs unless this fluid is sterilized by boil-
ing or a germicide is added thereto. Ordinary water
contains a large number of bacteria, usually many hun-
dred thousand per cubic centimeter.
3. MIscELLANEOUS Sources.—Other modes of infection
include infection from the skin of the patient, from the
hands of the surgeon or those of his assistants, from
instruments, sponges or their substitutes, hgatures and
sutures, dressing materials, vessels or utensils, syringes,
and in other ways.
Circumstances Predisposing to Infection
Among the factors which render a given infection
more likely to prove harmful is excessive injury to the
44 WOUND TREATMENT
tissues during an operation, such as rough manipulation
or bruising or tearing of the structures. By these means
the vitality of the tissues is lowered and their resistance
so impaired that the development of micro-organisms
which may have gained entrance is thereby favored. The
number and virulence of the infecting organisms, the
state of health of the animal, and the environment are
also important in connection with this subject.
Wound Healing
Time will not permit me to enter into the question of
the repair of wounds. As you are well aware, the modes
of healing are as follows:
1. Primary UNION or ‘‘UNION By First INTEN-
TION.’’—This takes place in simple incised wounds under
favorable conditions—that is, when there is a practical
freedom from infection, when hemorrhage has been
arrested, and the surfaces are brought into apposition
and kept at rest. It is the mode of healing we will strive
to bring about but so seldom succeed in attaining when
the horse is concerned.
2. UNION BY GRANULATION AND CICATRIZATION.—This
is by far the more common method of healing in horses.
Formerly there was an idea that the suppuration accom-
panying the process originated from the superficial layer
of cells on the recent granulations, which were arrested
in their development and converted into pus eells, being’
east off in the discharge. We know now that the cause
of the suppuration is the presence of micro-organisms,
and that union by granulation can occur without sup-
puration, although admitting that such is not common
in the horse.
3. UNION UNpER A Scas.—In this, repair takes. place
beneath a scab formed by the drying of the discharges.
This is cast off spontaneously as soon as cicatrization
a
ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 45
is completed underneath. It is a common mode of repair
in wounds left to heal without any dressing.
The Technic of Treatment
We now arrive at the practical application of the
principles, based on a consideration of the points we
have considered. Dealing first with operation wounds,
in the case of healthy tissues in the normal animal,
there are certain details which, if they do not result
in bringing about healing by first intention, will at any
rate assist in the process of repair, and prevent the
occurrence of serious sequele. .
I suppose every one will agree that instruments are
best sterilized by boiling for five minutes in water con-
taining a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda to each pint.
The addition of the soda raises the boiling point of water
to 104 degrees Centigrade, and also prevents the forma-
tion of rust if the instruments are left in the solution for
some time; when required for use they are placed in a
sterilized tray containing a solution of carbolic acid
(1 to 40). The water should be boiling before the instru-
ments are placed therein, and the vessel in which they
are boiled should have a closely fitting lid so that the
water will boil at a uniform temperature. As regards
sharp instruments, such as knives, scissors, and needles,
which become blunt from the effects of boiling, some
surgeons advise that the edges be protected with a piece
of gauze or lint, and state that blunting does not then
occur. This is not my experience, and I prefer to im-
merse such instruments in undiluted earbolic acid for
a short time, and then place them in a earbolie solution
(1 to 20). This method is advised by Sir Watson
Cheyne, and it is also valuable in case an instrument
happens to fall on the ground during an operation and
is immediately required, since boiling takes five min-
46 WOUND TREATMENT
utes to sterilize, Indeed, this method is also useful in
emergency operations, when facilities for boiling are not
at hand, or an instrument is required for use at a mo-
ment’s notice. Corrosive sublimate has a most destruct-
ive effect on metallic instruments, therefore solutions of
this agent are unsuitable for sterilization purposes.
As regards the preparation of the patient’s skin and
the hands of the surgeon, it is not feasible to carry out
that tedious technic of sterilization adopted by human
surgeons. Fortunately we have in tincture of iodin an
agent which renders the skin of the patient and the hands
of the operator aseptic. Of course the operation area
should first be shaved before the iodin is applied. Two
applications are necessary, one about fifteen minutes
prior to operation and the other immediately before the
operation. Simple incised wounds are those which are
most likely to heal by first intention, provided certain
details receive attention.
Primary Union Seldom Secured
Deeper wounds, as already remarked, generally heal
by granulation, but unfortunately in too many instances
suppuration occurs in spite of all precautions. But there
are degrees of infection depending on the number, char-
acter, and virulence of the infecting micro-organisms that
gain entrance to the wound; hence the necessity for sur-
gical cleanliness and the judicious employment of anti-
septics.
There are two important points in connection with the
subject which cannot be ignored. The first is, that in
operations of all kinds the tissues should receive as little
damage as possible. Neatness and dexterity in operat-
ing exert a marked influence on the healing of the
resulting wounds. This is well exemplified in the opera-
tion of neurectomy, when a skillful operator exposes the
_ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 47
nerve and excises the desired portion with little or no ©
damage to the surrounding tissues. On the other hand,
an inexpert operator, in his efforts to expose the nerve,
disorganizes the tissues to a considerable extent. In
the former case the wound heals by first intention; in
the latter, even with all attempts at asepsis and antisep-
sis, healing occurs by granulation often accompanied by
suppuration.
The next point is with reference to drainage. Now
in all wounds of any extent an exudation of serum
occurs, generally referred to as the ‘‘secretions of the
wound.’’ Such must not be allowed to accumulate in
spaces in the wound, and proper drainage is necessary.
Accumulations of serum not only cause tension in the
wound, but also favor the growth of micro-organisms.
The various details in connection with aseptic wounds
need not occupy us further. For the reasons already
given, in the case of horses it is difficult to obtain healing
by first intention; that it is possible even in the major
operations has been demonstrated by operators who have
had special opportunities for carrying out the technic.
But I have yet to learn that aseptic surgery, as con-
ducted by human surgeons, can be carried out in the
ordinary operation by the general practitioner. Take
even the latest surgical feat, the new operation for ‘‘roar-
ing,’’ where aseptic precautions are rigidly carried out
before and during the operation, and what is the result?
Certainly not healing by first intention in any instance,
and more often than otherwise the wound is septic and
frequently fetid. Such a condition -would be regarded
as anything but ereditable in human laryngeal surgery—
but then the circumstances are different.
There are some enthusiasts who give details of aseptic
methods of castration; needless to say, they do not oper-
ate on many colts and have very little idea of the condi-.
48 WOUND TREATMENT -
tions and environment of these animals in the country.
My experience in the attempt I made at aseptic castra-
tion carried out by means of ligature was that no sup-
puration or swelling occurred, but the animal died of
septicemia and septic peritonitis. Had suppuration and
‘swelling occurred, probably the case would not have
resulted fatally. At the same time I believe in all pos-
sible attention to surgical cleanliness and to antisepsis
during the operation of castration, although I know full
well these measures will be frustrated in their results
by the owner or attendant of the animal. How infec-
tion occurs in castration wounds is so obvious that I
need not refer to the subject.
Treatment of Accidental Wounds
When operation wounds suppurate or become septic,
they are in the same category as accidental wounds so
far as treatment is concerned.
Every accidental wound may be assumed to be in-
fected, to a greater or less extent.
In earrying out treatment, there are certain impor-
tant procedures necessary, which I shall refer to under
the following headings:
1. ARREST OF HEMORRHAGE.—In order to be able to
explore a wound with any degree of accuracy, to say
nothing of checking preventable waste of blood, hemo-
stasis is of prime import. This is to be accomplished
by means of torsion or compression of all bleeding ves-
sels or by ligation.
2. CLEANSING AND DISINFECTING OF THE WOUND.—
This is carried out by careful washing with an anti-
septic solution. As to the agent selected it is largely
a question of choice. The large number of reliable
germicides that are now on the market render a selec-
tion comparatively easy. Carbolic acid is still largely
_ ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 49
employed for the purpose, although there is consider-
able difference of opinion as regards its germicidal
power. Whatever agent is used, a thorough cleansing
of the wound is essential.
Unfortunately, we do not often get the chance to
attend to the first dressing of a wound, as the owner
or the attendant attempts the process on the occurrence
of the accident and far too frequently introduces infec-
tion. In the case of a deep punctured wound, in which
infection is probably deep-seated, and the external open-
ing small in size, it is necessary to carefully enlarge the
latter so as to carry out thorough irrigation.
3. REMOVAL OF FoREIGN Bopies.—This is a procedure
that requires special attention. Wounds in hunters fre-
quently contain foreign bodies such as thorns, portions
of gravel, or other substances, and a careful search is
necessary in order to discover their presence; if they are
overlooked, serious trouble will occur afterwards.
4. DRAINAGE.—Efficient drainage is of the greatest im-
portance. This is well exemplified by contrasting the
progress made by punctured wounds extending in an up-
ward direction, with those extending downwards. With-
out proper drainage, all other means will fail. To carry
this out efficiently in the case of extensive wounds is not
always an easy matter, but on it depends success or fail-
ure. Suitable openings must be made at dependent parts,
and the selection of drainage materials will depend on
circumstances. If gauze drainage can be employed,
eare should be taken that the gauze does not act as a
plug and prevent the escape of discharge. In extensive
wounds, india-rubber drainage tubes are to be preferred.
The old-fashioned seton must be condemned, as it
causes irritation and increases suppuration.
5. SuTuRES.—Careful consideration is necessary in or-
der to decide whether it is advisable to employ sutures.
50 WOUND TREATMENT
The frequency with which extensive wounds involving
the muscular tissues (such as occur in the region of
the hip) suppurate, and the sutures give way, has led
some practitioners to leave such wounds open. No doubt
in the case of a ‘‘squealing,’’ kicking mare, or of an
unbroken colt, we all have a tendency at times to avoid
the use of sutures, and it is surprising to find how
readily such wounds heal. Still, there is no doubt but
that less blemish is left if the edges of such wounds
are brought together by sutures, at any rate for a time,
provided thorough cleansing is carried out and proper
drainage provided. In extensive wounds of this kind
occurring in vicious animals, I always cast the patient
in order to carry out the procedure properly. The
suture material should be soft in texture, but strong;
hard material is very likely to cut through the skin.
In clean-cut wounds, sutures should always be employed.
It is hardly necessary to remark that in punctured
wounds, or deep wounds of any kind, and in the ease of
torn or lacerated wounds with much destruction of tis-
sue, or in suppurating or: septic wounds, sutures are
contraindicated.
Experience has taught me that wounds in the region
of the head are best treated without sutures, unless such
cases are in an infirmary under the immediate care of
the practitioner, so that the early indications of septic
infection may be observed. Under other conditions there
is a tendency to the occurrence of erysipelas or allied
complications. I now paint such wounds with tincture
of iodin and find the best results therefrom. This may
be considered as an irritating agent, but the results
justify its employment. There are instances of sup-
purating wounds in which suturing should be at-
tempted in order to avoid permanent blemish. Some
time ago I saw a case in a foal in which a wound extended
_ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 51
from the commissure of the lips up the cheek, exposing
the first two molar teeth. The accident had occurred
about ten days previously, and two attempts at suturing
had been made, but they were unsuccessful. The wound
was suppurating freely and granulations had formed
on each of the edges, but there were no evidences of
union. My first attempt was also unsuccessful. I then
cast the animal again, removed all granulations with
sharp scissors, freshened the edges of the skin and
mucous membrane, removed all debris of food, washed
the parts thoroughly with peroxid of hydrogen, inserted
a deep layer of sutures so as to bring the edges of the
mucous membrane together, the sutures being composed
of soft silk soaked in peroxid of hydrogen, a superficial
row of sutures was inserted in the skin, the wound was
again cleansed with the antiseptic, and then painted over
with collodion. The foal was removed from the dam
and fed from a pail, and no further dressings ordered
except the application of compound tincture of benzoin
to the edges of the wound after a few days. A few of
the sutures gave way, but healing progressed satisfac-
torily and perfect union resulted.
6. SuretcAL Dressines.—As a general rule, wounds
should be covered with suitable surgical dressings when-
ever possible, at any rate in the earlier stages. Whether
these dressings should be moist or dry must depend on
circumstances. In suppurating wounds I find the best
' dressing, in cases where expense is no object, is double
eyanid gauze soaked in a solution of peroxid of hydro-
gen (one part of the ten-volume solution to three of
water). The gauze is then enveloped with a thick layer
of cotton wool and a bandage.
As to the frequency of dressing, this will depend on
the amount of discharge. When the latter soaks through
the dressing, it is an indication for renewal. If this
52 WOUND TREATMENT’
be neglected the discharges become putrid and a mixed
infection is likely to oceur.
For country practice a reliable and cheap antiseptic
is Hualey’s Liquor Cresolis, in two-per-cent solution.
As the discharge lessens, the dressing need not be
changed sooner than the third day, and later on a dry
antiseptic dressing, such as boric acid with zine oxid,
may take the place of the moist one.
In punctured wounds, after drainage has been pro-
vided for I find it is a good plan to plug the wound
with gauze soaked in peroxid of hydrogen. This dress-
ing may be renewed as often as circumstances require.
In country practice it is useless to expect the owner
or attendant to apply dressings properly. Therefore,
unless there are reasons to the contrary, wounds do best
when left open, being simply cleansed with an antiseptic
solution and painted with compound tincture of benzoin.
This latter agent fell into disuse for a time, but in my
experience it is a most useful. wound dressing for coun-
try cases, where as little handling of the wound as pos-
sible is an important matter.
Carbolized oil, which at one time was so popular a
dressing, is now known to be absolutely imert as a
gvermicide.
In hunters, deep puncture wounds of the front of
the hind fetlock due to sharp stones are of frequent
occurrence. The bursa of the tendon may, or may not,
be opened, but acute inflammation rapidly develops and
marked pain is present. Attempts to heal such wounds
quickly do not prove successful, as infection is deeply
situated; in my experience the best dressing is one of
the modern substitutes for poultices, which are com-
posed of kaolin, glycerin, and antiseptic agents, applied
hot and changed daily. When acute symptoms have
-subsided, the ordinary dressings may be applied.
_ ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT 53
Wounds of the sheaths of the flexor tendons are often
serious in consequence of the infection extending up-
ward and downward. Free drainage should be provided
early, and rigid attention to antisepsis is necessary.
In all wounds in the region of the limbs there is a
tendency to the formation of exuberant granulations.
These require early attention in order to avoid perma-
nent blemishes. I find that the judicious application
of finely powdered sulphate of copper is the most reliable
treatment in these cases, old fashioned no doubt, but
efficient for the purpose required.
Wounds of the knee, involving the extensor tendons
in the vicinity of this joint, are not uncommonly followed
by fibrous ankylosis, accelerated no doubt by keeping the
horse from lying down. When such a complication
occurs, the animal should be cast and chloroformed and
the joint forcibly flexed, otherwise the horse will be
useless.
Wounds in the feet due to picked-up nails I shall not
consider here, as this would form a separate subject for
a paper. But in hunters, wounds are not uncommon
in this region as the result of portions of furze (gorse)
branches entering the foot in the vicinity of the frog.
Sharp portions of flint not uncommonly enter the foot
and extend deep into the sole. The detection of such
foreign bodies is not always an easy matter and requires
a careful examination of the foot. I believe the best
- treatment, after the removal of the foreign body and
the proper enlargement of the wound, is to apply pure.
earbolic acid or lysol, and a cataplasm composed of
kaolin and glycerin.
In my experience the most dangerous wounds are
those due te punctures from shafts, such as result from
collisions. The difficulty in obtaining drainage is very
‘considerable, especially when the wound occurs in the
o4 WOUND TREATMENT
region of the hind quarter. But proper drainage must
be secured at all costs, otherwise treatment will fail and
septicemia result. If necessary, the animal should be
east in order to carry out the surgical procedure; after-
treatment will consist in copious irrigation with anti-
septic solutions carried out by means of a Winton’s
syringe provided with a gum-elastic top. Where ex-
‘pense is not objected to, the wound should be plugged
with double cyanid gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxid
solution, the irrigation and dressing being earried out
daily.
Time will not permit me to deal with the question of
open joints, which in reality would require a special
paper. But I cannot omit drawing attention to the
dangerous character of punctured wounds in the fore-
arm, which are not uncommonly followed by purulent
arthritis of the elbow joint. The septic inflammation ex-
tends along the sheaths of the tendons, and these ten-
dons support directly the synovial membrane of the
elbow joint. Hence wounds of this region should be
drained as early as possible by a free dependent opening.
Conclusion
The practical outcome of a consideration of the sub-
ject appears to be that, although we can never hope to
practice aseptic surgery in the strict sense of the term,
we can at least carry out antiseptic principles, so far as
is possible under the very unfavorable conditions that
surround us.
Improvements in the results obtained are more likely
to follow strict attention to surgical cleanliness and
proper drainage of wounds than ecare in the selection
of the agents we employ as drainage. After twenty-five
years of ‘‘playing the game,’’ and seeing it played by
ANTISEPTICS—PAST AND PRESENT a)
others, I cannot believe that among the host of agents
that are introduced yearly, one possesses any special
virtues over another so far as the healing of wounds is
concerned.
In conclusion, I think the practical deduction to be
drawn is that every attsmpt should be made to exclude
infection from wounds, whenever this is possible, and,
in the case of wounds already infected, to retard the
erowth and development of micro-organisms by the judi-
cious employment of antiseptics.
But whether in the case of operation or of accidental
wounds, it is quite apparent that in ordinary practice
we cannot dispense with antiseptics, and attempts to
do so are likely to be followed by disaster.
SUPPRESSION OF HEMORRHAGE
By E. WALLIS HOARE, F.R.C.V5S., Cork, Ireland
The arrest of hemorrhage is one of the most important
points in connection with the technic for the treatment
of both surgical and accidental wounds. There are two
reasons why hemorrhage should be controlled:
1. To prevent a fatal termination from excessive loss of blood.
2. Hemorrhage lowers the vitality of the animal’s system and
hence retards the healing of wounds. Also blood clots in a
wound form a nidus for the development of micro-organisms.
Fatal hemorrhage, so far as wounds are concerned,
occurs when a large blood vessel is severed and profes-
sional assistance is not at hand. But it may result, in |
spite of the efforts of the practitioner, when one or
more large vessels are severed that are so deeply situ-
ated they cannot be ligated. This may occur in the
case of extensive wounds due to the penetration of a
shaft between the forearm and the chest, or at any part ©
of the pectoral region, or in the vicinity of the inferior
aspect of the neck. .
In such cases but little time is allowed for the effort?
of the surgeon to prove successful. Very often more
than one vessel is severed, and unless ligation can be
employed without delay, a fatal termination will result.
Plugging the wound with tow is of little or no use when
the hemorrhage proceeds from a large vessel. In my
experience the only plan that offers any chance of suc-
cess is to insert a temporary plug of tow and to cast
the animal immediately, then seek for the bleeding vessel
57
58 WOUND TREATMENT
(enlarging the wound if necessary), and, having secured
it with an artery forceps, apply a ligature. In some
instances it may not be necessary to cast the horse, as in
consequence of the loss of blood he does not resist the
necessary manipulation, but the procedure is far more
easily and satisfactorily carried out when the animal is in
the recumbent position.
As already remarked, all our efforts may fail in cases
where the vessel is out of reach. Plugging with tow may
succeed when the wounded vessel is not of large size,
but even in this ease it is not to be advised. Although
such plugging may temporarily arrest the hemorrhage,
there is always the risk that secondary bleeding will
occur and prove fatal in the absence of the attendant.
It may be laid down as a rule that ligature is the only
safe method to adopt in the suppression of hemorrhage.
Only when the vessel cannot be secured should resort be
had to plugging the wound.
It sometimes happens that although a vessel may be
secured by the artery forceps, in consequence of its depth
a ligature cannot be applied. In many instances, by
the employment of Schoemaker’s pattern of forceps, in
which by means of a groove at the point of one of the
blades a ligature is held in position, a deep-seated vessel
may be ligated. This is a most useful instrument and
should be in the possession of every practitioner.
I have frequently left an artery forceps in situ for
twenty-four hours in cases where a ligature could not
be applied. Care should be taken to tie up the animal
during the interval so that he may not le down and so
cause the instrument to become detached, or to be driven
inward by pressure.
In preparing for major operations, a plentiful supply
of artery forceps of large and small sizes should be
provided, as one never knows when a large vessel may
SUPPRESSION OF HEMORRHAGE 59
be severed. There are so many patterns of these instru-
ments now on the market that a selection of the best
is not an easy matter. Personally, I prefer the pattern
known as the Mayo-Ochner, which is of the ‘‘rat’s-
tooth’’ type and very efficient. For ease in getting the
lhgature to slip down the forceps, Greig-Smith’s pattern
can be recommended, and the larger sizes are especially
useful for ligating large vessels.
As to the ligature material, some prefer silk, others
eatgut, but I prefer the material known as ‘‘ Chinese
twist,’’ which can be obtained in all sizes, can be readily
sterilized, and stands great strain. Nothing is more an-
-noying when ligating a vessel than to have the ligature
material break at a critical moment.
In the case of small vessels, where no ligature is re-
quired, I have found that Blunk’s hemostatic forceps
are convenient and reliable.
Tumors
There are certain operations in which the question of
the arrest or control of hemorrhage is of special im-
portance. Tumors in the region of the shoulder, alsc
known as ‘‘collar’’ tumors, in some cases depending on
the presence of Botryomyces but in others having a
‘doubtful etiology, need special care.
When ordinary treatment fails—that is, locating the
abscess by means of a trocar and cannula, free incision,
euretting the cavity, and plugging with tow soaked in
tincture of iodin—then excision must be resorted to.
A knowledge of the anatomy of this region, and of
the firm consistency of the tumor and its extensive
attachments, indicates that serious hemorrhage is likely
to cecur unless care be taken in the technic of the opera-
tion. The position of the carotid artery should be
earefully noted, so as to avoid injuring this vessel. But
in my experience the vessel which is most likely to be
60 WOUND TREATMENT
severed is the ascending branch of the inferior cervical
artery. In many instances I have located and ligatured
this vessel prior to incising the parts in the vicinity and
thus saved much subsequent trouble and time. And
here I may remark that in every instance and in every
region when we come across a vessel that is likely to be
severed during the operation, it is a good plan to ligature
it before proceeding further. :
Large pressure forceps are useful to hold deep-seated
portions of the tumor. The growth is severed along
the edge of the forceps, and any vessels that are cut can
be seen and readily secured before the structures are
let go.
After the tumor has been removed, and all bleeding
points secured, I advise packing with carbolized tow in
order to combat any danger of secondary hemorrhage.
Healing by first intention is not to be expected, and the
packing ean be removed within twenty-four hours. I
have met with very serious secondary hemorrhage from
eases of this kind, and hence I find that firm packing
immediately after operation is the best plan to adopt.
When secondary hemorrhage does occur, it 1s very
difficult to suppress; these tumors have such extensive
vascular attachments that bleeding may be very profuse,
and when it occurs at night time, and is not immediately
observed and checked, a fatal result may ensue. In the
case of a quiet animal, the bleeding vessel may be located
and secured, but otherwise it may be necessary to cast
the patient in order to carry out the necessary pro-
cedure.
In less severe cases, firm plugging with tow and deep
suturing of the edge of the wound will prove successful.
In the case of all wounds the great objection to firm
plugging is the extensive swelling that usually results,
therefore I always prefer, when possible, to secure the
SUPPRESSION OF HEMORRHAGE 61
bleeding vessel. Moreover, there are instances in which
the hemorrhage recurs after the packing is removed, and
as a result the cleansing of the wound cannot be properly ©
carried out.
Castration
Why hemorrhage occurs in some cases after castration
and not in others, when the measures adopted to secure
the spermatic artery are similar in each instance, is a
problem which is not easy to solve.
Generally speaking, the most serious and annoying
cases are those that occur some time after the operation,
say within twelve or twenty-four hours. As my experi-
ence of castration cases is limited to those operated on
by torsion, I can deal with the subject only from this
point of view. This experience has taught me that in
the vast majority of cases, if torsion is properly carried
out and the spermatic artery is in a healthy condition
and the animal healthy, hemorrhage does not occur.
The exceptions are those cases in which we cannot account
for the hemorrhage.
The procedure to be adopted depends on the extent
of the bleeding. We frequently observe cases that bleed
profusely after getting up, but this soon ceases without
any treatment. Obviously, such do not depend on hemor-
rhage from the spermatic artery, but the bleeding arises
from the artery of the cord or from a vessel in the
scrotum.
When the hemorrhage is profuse and clearly arterial,
the best plan is to cast the animal, seek for and secure
the severed end of the spermatic cord, and apply a liga-
ture. This is far preferable to plugging the inguinal
canal and scrotal cavity with tow, with its risks of sec-
ondary hemorrhage when the packing is being removed,
and the extensive swelling which always results. In the
62 WOUND TREATMENT
case of secondary hemorrhage occurring at night, plug-
ging with tow may be the only practicable measure to
be adopted under the circumstances.
In the after-treatment care should be taken to remove
all blood clots, for otherwise a septic condition is likely
to result. It must be admitted that in many eases the
hemorrhage after castration ceases spontaneously. The
measures adopted, such as throwing cold water over the
loins or applying cloths soaked in cold water to the same
region, are of doubtful efficacy.
That ‘‘weedy’’ debilitated colts are most subject to this
variety of hemorrhage is well known. Again, aged don-
keys and mules are very apt to bleed profusely unless
special care is taken in the performance of torsion of
the artery.
I have often observed that castration performed under
deep chloroform anesthesia is likely to be followed by
hemorrhage some hours afterwards. This does not occur
when a lighter degree of anesthesia is employed.
Epistaxis
Hemorrhage from the nose occasionally gives rise to
considerable trouble, especially when arising from in-
juries about the facial and nasal region. As it is dan-
gerous to plug both nasal passages of the horse, this
method of suppressing the hemorrhage is not practi-
cable. If one nasal passage only be plugged, the blood
finds its way down the other.
Local injection of adrenalin proves useful, and rais-
ing the horse’s head will also assist in controlling the
hemorrhage, but care must be taken lest the blood gain
entrance to the trachea.
Accidental Wounds
I have already referred to the question of hemorrhage
arising from injuries due to shafts penetrating the’ body.
SUPPRESSION OF HEMORRHAGE 63
But there are many minor injuries in which hemorrhage
may be a troublesome feature. Wounds received during
hunting furnish a large number of cases in sporting
districts. In these the same golden rule applies: always
secure and ligature a bleeding vessel whenever possible.
-Avoid plugging and tight bandaging except as an emer-
gency measure.
As regards hemostatic agents, they have no effect in
the case of vessels of any size, and the majority of them
irritate the wound.
Deep punctured wounds, in which it is not possible
to secure a bleeding vessel without making an extensive
opening, may be plugged with antiseptic gauze.
Wounds involving the digital arteries in the region of
the coronet are often troublesome, as it is by no means
easy to secure the bleeding vessel, especially in the case
of a nervous, excitable horse. The Mayo-Ochner artery
forceps will be found useful for cases of this kind.
When an artery or vein is exposed in an extensive
wound, but not severed, it is advisable to apply a liga-
ture, since the walls of the vessel may give way and
serious hemorrhage result. Should it become necessary
to apply a ligature to the carotid artery it must be
remembered that in consequence of the collateral circu-
lation both the proximal and the distal ends of the
vessel must be secured.
As regards the employment of the actual cautery as
a hemostatic agent, in consequence of tissues it pro-
duces it is now being discarded. In Great Britain it is
still employed by some practitioners in the operation of
castration and also docking. From a humane and scien-
tific point of view it is to be hoped that the suppression
of hemorrhage by means of the actual cautery will soon
be regarded as one of the relics of the barbarous ages.
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS
By L. A. MERILLAT
The treatment of wounds! What a vast subject!
When the surgeon makes a wound, or meets one acci-
dentally inflicted, he is immediately confronted with
the important task of guiding the reparative process
through and to the successful issue that will not only
protect the patient against serious complications, but
which will also leave the once injured body in the best
possible condition: sound, healthy, and unblemished. The
word ‘‘guiding’’ is used advisedly, because the first rule
to lay down in the management of wounds is that wound
healing is a process of nature that can be guided—
influenced, but not forced. The surgeon does not heal
a wound; he merely puts it and keeps it in a favorable
eondition to heal. The inherent, mysterious, subtle,
cellular activity that begins as soon as a wound is in-
flicted and ends in strict obedience to an inexplicable
law as soon as the breach is filled up with just enough
new tissue to level off the excavation, is indeed a process
‘to be guided rather than forced by any outer inter-
ference. .
The student of wound healing who first of all learns
the wisdom of non-interference with this process has
already laid down a good foundation for wound treat-
ment. In other words, he who bases his management
of wounds upon the fact that the new tissue that
sprouts out from the walls of a traumatic cavity under
normal conditions grows safely to a useful, mature
tissue without outside help, is the successful healer,
65
66 WOUND TREATMENT
while on the other hand he who is bent upon constant
meddlesome interference with the germination, growth,
and maturing of the reparative elements required to re-
store the lost elements, invites complications, retards
the normal activity of tissue construction, and usually
leaves indelible blemishes as evidence of his harmful
practices.
The system of wound treatment in general use in the
veterinary profession, to be perfectly frank, does not
entitle us to much credit. Our therapy in this connec-
tion is severely lacking in the refinement that enables
the surgeon of human beings to make and manage suc-
cessfully enormously large wounds. The reader may
here insist that he has obtained good results from his
wound treatment. But is this really the fact? Is it not
more nearly the truth that our successfully treated
wounds are, after all, trivial wounds, and that our really
serious wounds, surgical or accidental, are too often
fatal, or that they permanently disfigure or perma-
nently disable our animal patients? And is it not
still a painful fact that the whole veterinary profes-
sion continues to exhibit a real fear of extensive sur-
gical wounds because of their bad behavior? And is it
not still the truth that many of us fear to invade the
splanchnic cavities and synovials, believing that acci-
dental wounds of these cavities are fatal and surgical
wounds very hazardous? Such an impression should
no longer prevail among us, at least not to the same
extent as in years gone by. With our knowledge of
regeneration on the one hand, and of the pathology of
wound complications on the other, we should approach
almost any wound with more confidence than formerly ;
and then by planning various schemes to remove every
harmful element, inherent and ulterior, a very remark-
able success may be achieved in the treatment of even
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 67
very serious wounds. It must be borne in mind first -
of all that the wounds we meet and make, and the
nature of our animal patients, call for special systems
of management from the beginning to the end of the
healing period. After we have followed the general
principles which should govern the management of
wounds of all living creatures, there are. still special
plans, systems, methods, and procedures applicable to
our patients which must be executed in order to meet
the requirements needed to obtain the best results.
The necessity for skillful, scientific, ingenious wound
treatment is estimated best by those who venture into
the field of major surgery. Just so long as the surgeon
restricts his enterprises to minor procedures, the refine-
ment of technic required to succeed in major work is not
appreciated, as the minor wound heals in spite of the
method, while the major wound ends fatally or in some
other disaster. In short, if we desire to go onward
with our animal surgery we must first surmount the
various obstacles due to the fact that our patients be-
longing to the brute creation are unable to give the
surgeon any help, are barely worth the expense of
much surgical work, and are always dirty and are '
always kept in dirty surroundings. To do good surgical
_work even with these obstacles working against us, is
our task, and it is a task we must in some way master.
We are no longer compelled to sing the praises of —
aseptic work; everybody now recognizes its merit, no
one but the very ignorant ignores it; and as I once heard
a medical bystander remark: ‘‘Even the horse doctor
practices it.’’ Ten years ago we were frantically de-
fending asepsis for animal surgery as a more or less
practical procedure; to-day everybody knows it can be
successfully practiced through almost every surgical
operation and through the postoperative convalescence.
68 WOUND TREATMENT
Wound infections of the surgeon’s making, onee the
rule, are fast becoming the exception.
During the last two decades the veterinarian has,
of course, learned much, with the rest of mankind, about
the nature and behavior of wound infections, and espe-
cially about the manner wound infections are carried
into wounds. -We have been painfully slow to acknowl-
edge the venomous nature of our hands and instruments,
‘in our well-rooted belief that microbes around a sur-
gical operation on animals were so abundant and so
volatile that no system of procedure could cope with
them. With all of these prejudices out of the way, and
with every one satisfied that the animal surgeon may
now, if he chooses, protect his patients against these
self-made infections, our attention must be directed also
toward other obstacles. What these are and how we
may attempt to meet them will be considered in the
succeeding paragraphs. The object of this article is
more to bring the modern conception of wound treat-
ment before the profession in the hope that a better
system of wound treatment applicable to animals may
be adopted in the veterinary profession to the decided
benefit of our onward march toward higher levels; pre-
cisely as a few years ago it was found necessary to
preach the gospel of asepsis. That these obstacles are
formidable, and the recommendations I may be able to
make inadequate, is hereby acknowledged. ~~
The treatment of wounds! Let us understand one
another. What to rub on a wound or what not to rub
on a wound is not in our mind in this discussion. On
the contrary, we are taking the treatment of wounds
in its fullest sense, ‘‘The curing of the patient by the
surgeon,’’ for this is what wound treatment is, after
all. In surgery the healing of the wound is usually
analogous to curing the patient. It is evident, therefore,
ee ee ee
ee Se
: TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 69
that wound treatment begins in the preoperative de-
hberations over a proposed surgical subject, for if the -
wound will not heal, no operation is indicated.
Preoperative Treatment of Wounds
Under this somewhat irrelevant title is included a
consideration of those systematic conditions which miti-
gate against the healing of wounds made by the sur-
geon and those accidentally inflicted; the influence the
general health will have upon the behavior of a pro-
posed surgical wound; the condition under which the
patient must live during healing; and the amount of
intelligent after-care it will be possible to administer.
The bearing of the health and especially the vigor of
a wounded patient upon the healing of a wound has
too often been ignored. In a large city, where horses
are often reduced to a pronouned state of general en-
feeblement from hard work, or from hard work and pri-
vation combined, the influence of this element in the
behavior of wounds is most appreciated. The serious
nail prick, implicating the pedal synovials, for example,
will respond to active treatment in the vigorous subject,
but will prove fatal in the weak. In the strong, wounds
are inclined to have only a local effect, while in the
weak, bacteria and their metabolic products are almost
certain to tend to generalize and cause such grave com-
plications as septicemia, pyemia, and embolic pneumonia.
The management of wounds must, therefore, begin in
the preoperative deliberations. We must know first if
the patient is fit to withstand a given ordeal, and then
plan accordingly. I know of no one element that works
so much harm in animal surgery as that of operating
upon the weak subject. Whether the enfeeblement is
due to disease or other influences does not matter, the
70 WOUND TREATMENT
relations between the patient’s condition and the trau-
matism is of equal importance.
The point may be illustrated in fistula of the withers.
In a young, vigorous subject with a fistula of recent
origin, before or soon after the first abscess has dis-
charged its contents the surgeon may proceed fearlessly
to the most radical steps, with a full assurance of a
rapid recovery. The trauma may be large enough. to
cause considerable shock, and the blood loss may be great,
but in spite of these there is prompt reaction from the
shock and a prompt healing is soon progressing. On
the other hand, a subject affected with a sapping fistula
that has been draining the system for months may be
too feeble from anemia and chronic septicemia to with-
stand even a minor operation. The one will recover,
the other may die.
Serawny, ill-wintered colts fall victims of castration,
while the vigorous seldom die. I know of no greater
hazard than herniotomy or cryptorchidectomy in en-
feebled subjects. In the case of accidentally inflicted
wounds, precisely as in surgical wounds, there is this
same element of vigor working for or against the sur-
geon, and unless due attention is given thereto, wound
healing may take a bad turn right from the beginning,
even if the patient recovers from the shock inflicted.
Case after case might be related to illustrate this point.
It should, however, be sufficient to say that the vigor of
our animal patients has such a marked effect upon the
results of our surgery that no surgical operation should
ever be thought of without first giving due considera-
tion to the influence the general ca ape will have upon
the final results.
The remedy in other than urgent cases is to improve
the patient’s condition by every available and practicable
means. I have often postponed poll-evil and fistulee
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 71
operations for ten days to two weeks pending an im-
provement of the patient. The abscesses were lanced
and irrigated and the patient, previously working per-
haps, was rested, groomed, fed well, and medicated until
a better state of health was induced. The loss in time in
such cases turns to actual gain in the more speedy recov-
-ery—that is, in the more rapid healing of the wound.
The hairy, pot-bellied colt, that has subsisted on rough-
age all winter, should get the invigorating effect of two
weeks at pasture before it is castrated, and like precau-
tions should be taken throughout the whole category of
surgical operations.
In emergency cases the weak require, as a remedy
against their enfeebled state, a much more painstaking
method of procedure to prevent infection, more carefut
anesthesia, and a more constant and diligent after-care.
It is here that vaccines find their greatest usefulness in
animal surgery. Although general systemic enfeeble-
ment does not always indicate a low opsonic index, our
observations lead to the conclusion that vaccines wield
a powerful influence for good in the great majority of
eases of this type.
The administration of iron, quinin, and potassium iodid
to encourage a better behavior of wounds has many
defenders, and no doubt serves as a more or less valu-
able adjunct to the feeding, bedding, grooming, and
general care of weak surgical subjects.
Another point in the preoperative attention of pa-
tients is the care of the feet. Any horse about to be
subjected to a surgical operation, whether the wound is
intentional or accidental, should be given the benefit of
good ‘‘underpinning.’’ The shoes should be removed
and the feet pared and then reshod, so as to give the
most comfort. This is particularly important when the
standing position must be maintained day after day.
(2 WOUND TREATMENT
In operations upon the feet for disabling lamenesses,
there is nothing so important as the opposite leg and
foot, which must now bear the burden of two. While
the patient is still on the table, the shoeing of the oppo-
site foot should be scrutinized, and corrected if neces-
sary. The sound leg, becoming tired, the weak patient
will often lie down and refuse to rise to bear the weight
on the aching member. Such cases soon become bed-
ridden, and seldom recover.
In fine, it might be truthfully said that no surgeon
of animals will have success with serious operations if
he wades into them with a reckless disregard for the
resistant powers of his patients. The surgeon of human
beings studies his patient for days. He puts him to bed,
diets him, purges him, stimulates him, examines his
urine, his blood pressure, his heart, and then finally de-
cides to operate. But we veterinarians often wade into
our patients without a forethought, and then wonder at
the mortality.
The operations in which there is an especial need of
weighing carefully the vigor of the patient in order to
forestall disaster are more numerous than might at first
be supposed. The more common are: |
. Radical operation against poll-evil.
. Radical operation against fistula of the withers.
Ablation of scirrhous cords, botryomycomata, shoe boils;
goiters, nasal tumors, eyeballs, and so on.
. Radical operations for large hernia-ventraloceles, oscheoceles,
and exomphaloceles.
. Cryptorchidectomy.
Operations upon infected tendon sheaths and articulations.
. Surgical treatment of large lacerations of the buttocks and
shoulders.
. Surgical treatment of abdominal wounds with visceral injury.
. Amputations following serious accidents.
Oo NAM FP wre
A review of these procedures, and there are many
others, shows clearly that major operations of a serious
1
—_ =
ER ee a ee a a er
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 73
character—serious on account of the magnitude of the
traumatism—are indeed numerous. They include the
surgical operations of animals that are actually worth
the trouble and expense entailed in their performance
and after-care, because the salvage is always consider-
able and in most cases amounts to the full value of the
individual afflicted. The existence of animal surgery
therefore depends largely upon our ability to work out
plans of wound treatment that will carry such patients
safely and promptly through the period intervening be-
tween the completion of the operation and the final
cicatrization of the wound. In short, to make animal
surgery actually worth while we must make, and then
manage, large wounds better than we have done hereto-
fore. 3
Previously in this article we endeavored to show that
the initial fault in wound treatment is the lack of
effort we make in the preoperative examination of our
surgical subjects. To wade recklessly into a patient be-
fore weighing carefully its ability to bear the effect of
the traumatism we are about to inflict seems to be a sin
we continue to commit. In view of the other obstacles
under which wound healing in animals must proceed
it is plainly important to start out with the best phys-
ical condition it is possible to produce. Every means
at our command should be drawn upon to accomplish
this end. |
I shall repeat that our best surgical subjects are
those well cared for, well fed, and worked enough to
keep them muscular, and the poorest risks are those
badly fed, worked hard, and housed in poorly venti-
lated stables. To the latter may be added animals sick
and enfeebled from the disease for which they are to
be operated upon. The former stand surgery well, while
the latter are victims of complications; the former need
74 _ WOUND TREATMENT
only a preparatory dieting to avert operative accidents,
while the latter are seldom fit for major surgery until ©
the lost vitality has been restored. A physical examina-
tion for pulmonary, cardiac, digestive, and locomotory
disorders is particularly demanded. Urine analysis,
blood counting, and bacteriological tests of discharges
and secretions are less called for in animal surgery than
in surgery of human beings, and in fact are only sel-
dom of sufficient importance to warrant one in resorting
to them, but the knowing animal specialist comes to
conclusions about the physical condition of his patients
by their general appearance and the lives they have
previously led. ;
The Cost of Better Wound Treatment
The question of cost always enters into any detailed
dissertation on surgical operations. It is usually thought
imprudent to add still more to the already high over-
head expense of our surgical work. To eliminate the
necessity of referring to this feature again, we shall
state flatly that the actual value of our surgical opera-
tions is not reflected in the prices in vogue to-day. The
veterinarian should make them more valuable by doing
better work. This is the pure and simple solution of
the ridiculously low prices we receive for our surgical
services. A scale of prices should be an elastic scale.
We must do what the surgeons of human beings do:
operate upon the poor for nothing, and claim a reason-
able fee where the cost is less an object. In veterinary
surgery we should operate upon cheap animals for less
than upon those where the salvage is great. Five, ten,
fifteen, or twenty dollars may be ill spent for an opera-
tion that ends unsuccessfully or in a long convalescence ;
while twice these amounts for operations that promptly
:
ee ee i te hed fi i ati
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 75
restore useless animals to their full value would be re.
garded as good investments.
Operations upon cheap animals, performed with a thor.
oughness that makes for good results, will always amply
pay the surgeon in experience if not in money; and this
experience can always be turned to good use when con-
ditions are more favorable for the collection of a good
fee. Any attempt to arrange prices on any other basis
is destined to failure. It is becoming more and more
evident that better surgery offers us the best oppor-
tunity to increase our incomes.
A Few Words on Asepsis
The precautions for preventing the contamination of
wounds while making them, or while treating those
accidentally inflicted, have revolutionized the surgical
art. To-day the surgeon must work religiously
throughout an operation to prevent the soiling of tis-
sues with infection, and this has greatly complicated
surgical technic. The mere cutting process is often
much simpler than that of preventing the open tis-
sue from becoming contaminated with pathogenic bac-
teria. Surgery includes to-day not onlv the classical
incisions, resections, and dissections, but also a compli-
eated prearranged plan for performing these opera-
tions without depositing harmful bacteria into the
trauma. The fact that bacteria are harbored upon and
within all objects directly and indirectly connected with
the procedure, calls for preventive measures that are by
no means easy to carry out. The prevention of opera-
tive infection requires knowledge of bacteriology and
- pathology that is not possessed by the charlatan, and.
it is here that the educated practitioner can find the
greatest weapon to use against his charlatan competitor.
76 WOUND TREATMENT
There are a certain definite number of objects that
touch wounds, and aseptic surgery might be correctly
defined as the art of preventing these from inoculating
bacteria into them.
- The air, the instruments, the surgeon’s hands, the
assistant’s hands, the surgeon’s clothing, the assistant’s
clothing, the operating place, the sponges, the solutions,
the containers of solutions, the sutures, the dressings and
bandages, the surroundings of the wound (surgical field),
and the patient’s habitat include all of the objects ca-
pable of conveying infection. Aseptic surgery dictates
a rigid handling of all of these objects. None must be
ignored; each must be made absolutely harmless, or at
least as nearly harmless as is possible and practicable.
To make a sane effort to prevent wound contamination
from each of these conveyors in every operation is a
modernism that should no longer be neglected in vet-
erinary practice. The methodical handling of these to
this end, in a surgical operation, is an exhibition of
knowledge and of skill—a spectacle deserving of praise
and sure to win applause from intelligent judges, and a
means of accomplishing the best results. The veteri-
narian should realize there is also a legal side to this ques-
tion: that he may be made accountable for infections
of his own making, when precautionary measures have
been disregarded.
Air as a Conveyor of Infection
Except where patients can be taken out into the open,
on a clean grass plot away from the dust of trodden
corrals, roads, or tilled fields, the air is capable of convey-
ing dangerous infections. The air itself acts only as a
carrier of particles which in turn carry bacteria. When
there are no particles suspended in the air it is harm-
{
|
:
:
‘
7
:
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 77
less; when it is laden with suspended or flying particles
it must be reckoned with, and is probably more often
the source of mysterious wound infections than we at
first supposed.
- In my earlier teachings I was inclined to make light
of the possibilities of wound infections from this source,
just as the surgeons of human beings were doing after
they demonstrated the fallacies of Lister’s historical
‘*phenicated cloud.’’ But a wider experience has taught
me that the air of stables, and especially of veterinary
hospitals, is quite different in this regard from that of
hospitals for human beings. —
- While it is no doubt a fact that most of our infections
come from other sources, the air of our operating
rooms is not to be entirely ignored. Such rooms are
usually dust laden, the dust originating from badly con-
taminated floors, and even when measures are taken to
allay dust, the room may become recontaminated around
the surgical field with dust raised from the patient’s
body. The body of a struggling animal may thus be-
come a veritable pest. Dust and hairs loosened by strug-
gles and then whirled about by drafts often create very
dangerous conditions. and are difficult to manage. We
would be making a poor start toward perfection in asep-
tic practice were we to continue to disregard these
dangers.
Refined nosocomial work demands special care to al-
lay suspended room dust by spraying, and to prevent
the raising of dust by mopping and flooding floors in-
stead of sweeping, and by wiping furniture and titen-
sils instead of dusting them. When these precautions
have been taken the patient itself might be brought in,
well groomed and moistened with a damp cloth to re-
duce to the minimum the amount of dust raised from
the body. This latter recommendation is particularly
78 WOUND TREATMENT
important aeouan the surgical field. These environs —
even be well soaked with water.
For the outdoor operation the trodden corral and
tilled field are particularly dangerous, for the dust from
these sources is ridden with bacteria of the most harm-
ful sort, and usually there is wind to whirl about the
particles raised by the patient’s struggles.
Youngsters, either equines or bovines, shedding the
long shaggy winter coat, are about the most miserable
surgical prospects imaginable. In operations upon such
animals great clouds or even’ bunches of hairs are some-
times swept into wounds, and if there is added to this
the dust from a bare paddock the condition is abom-
inable and strictly unfit for any kind of surgical work.
The use of any kind of litter as an operating bed may
likewise be condemned. There is no fit litter for sur-
gical work. A ban might as well be put on all kinds
of loose beddings used to make a soft place for re-
strained animals to lie upon during operations, for it is
positively impossible to maintain a decent state of sur-
gical cleanliness with loose particles whirled or trailed
into or near the wound at every movement. Whenever
the weather is too inclement for outdoor work it is bet-
ter to cast animals upon a bare floor, protecting the
head and hips with blankets if thought necessary. The
actual difference between a bare floor and a floor bedded
with two or three inches of straw is not great, measured
from the standpoint of the patient’s comfort. Beddings
are usually pushed aside and the body rests upon the
floor before the operation is far advanced, and about the
only good accomplished by the bedding is the psycho-
logical effect it has upon the audience. Shavings prop-
erly moistened can be controlled better than any other
bedding, but these are seldom available and are none
too safe. It is better to abandon entirely the use of
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 79
litter as a surgical appurtenance, and thus dispose of
one of the sources of air contamination.
In short, air is a prolific source of wound infection
in animal surgery that should be dealt with consistently.
It is not so dangerous as Lister taught before the days
of bacteriology, but more dangerous for veterinarians
than for the surgeons of human beings, who operate
under much more favorable conditions than is ever
possible for us.
Instruments as Conveyors of Infection
As instruments come into direct contact with wounds
they are more certain to inoculate them than the other
objects used in wound treatment. The metallic instru-
ments used in surgical work (knives, forceps, and so
on) become progressively more dangerous day after day
unless submitted to an effectual sterilization. That is,
instruments used from the pocket case or from shelves
of the instrument case soon become very dangerous.
They will infect every raw spot ans touch with appal-
ling certainty.
Wound infection from this source is Eviidable under
all circumstances in veterinary as in human surgery,
and should therefore be entirely eliminated. There is
absolutely no excuse for wound infection from instru-
ments. They can and should be sterilized before every
operation and then so handled during an operation as
| _ to prevent them from becoming contaminated. Veteri-
narians who continue to operate without first sterilizing
their instruments are fortunately fewer than formerly,
but I regret to say they are still legion.
Boiling is by far the easiest as well as the safest
method of making instruments safe. To assure safety,
metallic instruments should be boiled ten to fifteen min-
80 WOUND TREATMENT
utes. Cutting instruments are harmed somewhat by -
repeated prolonged heating; our present plan is to pick
up the knives from the boiling water after two or three
minutes and complete the sterilization by placing them
in a jar containing denatured alcohol. Alcohol steriliza-
tion alone for scalpels and bistouries is depended upon
by many, and if the immersion is long it may be regarded
an appropriate and safe expedient for the particular
purpose of assuring the best sterilization possible with-
out injuring the keen edges of sharp knives.
Rubber goods (gloves, catheters, drainage tubes,
syringes) may be subjected to a certain amount of
boiling without injury, and as these are not as a rule
very costly, such injury as they do sustain is unim-
portant. Costly instruments of this class ean also be
made safe by immersing them for some time in strong
solutions of mereuric chlorid.
The resoiling of instruments during operations must
be prevented by taking care that they do not come in
contact with soiled objects. If they become infected by
contact 'with pus or other infected substances they
should be set aside and not placed upon-or near clean
instruments on the tray. The use of a little caution
and plenty of common sense is needed in handling in-
struments, for otherwise the whole plan of clean operat-
ing will be futile.
The Surgeon’s and the Assistant’s Hands
The hands as carriers of infection into wounds we
treat deserve more than ordinary consideration, because
the hands of surgeons practicing among animals are
always hable to infect wounds. In short, the hands
belong to the first rank as infection carriers, not only
of ordinary pyogenic infection but also of infections of
x
a ey
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 81
more serious import. Working continually among in-
fected objects and infected structures of the body of
diseased animals that must be handled manually, the
veterinarian who indulges in major surgical work, or
who desires to have nice results from his minor work,
must learn first of all that his hands are dangerous
and unless managed properly will defeat his every other
precaution to perform aseptic operations. The hands
that remove a putrefied placenta or decomposed fetus are
not fit to handle internal organs or raw wound sur-
face for some time, even when careful washing precedes
the operation, for no washing, no matter how carefully
done, will immediately rid them of infectious material.
The exact truth in this connection is that bare hands
are never safe. Even the hands of the human surgeon
are not so regarded, and his work is by no means of
such a filthy character as that of the veterinarian.
Just before operating, the veterinarian is often engaged
in much dirty preparatory work—casting or otherwise
securing his patient. The paraphernalia used around
a veterinary surgical operation is dirty in the surgical
sense and abominably contaminated with the dirt of
preceding operations. As these must be handled with
the hands, there is little chance of the veterinarian ever
having hands that are fit to handle tissues or instru-
‘ments that must come in contact with tissues. And
since the wearing of sterilized, skin-tight rubber gloves
is not practicable for ordinary operations, it would
seem that we here meet an insurmountable obstacle.
- The truth is, however, quite different, for if we prac-
tice the art of avoiding the digital manipulation of raw
surfaces the obstacle is at once removed, no matter how
dirty the hands are. Ablutions of soap and water fol-
lowed by a rinsing in mercuric chlorid are all that is
needed to prevent infection from the hands when han-
82 WOUND TREATMENT
dling the tissues with the fingers can be avoided. While
such hands still harbor and deposit infections, they
touch only the handles of instruments; the blade of the
scalpel and the jaw of the forceps are not soiled, and
thus do not convey hand contaminations. By exercising
a little care to prevent the handles of instruments thus
soiled from touching the parts of other instruments on
the tray that will be subsequently used on the raw
tissues, the infection of wounds with the hands becomes
negligible in veterinary surgical operations in spite of
the fact that they are all the while badly contaminated
with bacteria. In addition, however, we must not forget
the assistant’s hands. These come into even closer con-
‘tact with the wound while baling blood than those of
the surgeon himself. In handling sponges the assistant
must endeavor throughout to keep the part of the sponge
he touches with the fingers from touching the wound—
a plan easy of execution—and under no circumstances
should he bring his fingers directly into contact with
the wound. When he hands instruments to the surgeon
he should touch only the handles or convey them with
forceps. The rules we have put into operation to pre-
vent wound infections from the hands are as follows:
1. Avoid all unnecessary handling of raw tissues with the
fingers.
2. Rinse the hands with mercuric chlorid (1 to 500) after wash-
ing them with soap and water. During the operation rinse
them frequently in a deep basin provided for the purpose.
3. Wear gloves while scouring the patient.
4. Touch only the handles of instruments that contact raw sur-
faces, and so arrange them on the tray that the handles will
not come into contact with the blades of knives or jaws of
forceps that will subsequently be used on the raw surfaces.
5. Handle needles and sutures with the read only, or wear
sterilized skin-tight gloves while suturing.
6. Soak sutures previously sterilized in tincture of iodin so that
soiling will be less harmful.
7. Where digital manipulations are needed, as in spaying. or
ridgling castration, the hands cannot be "made entirely safe,
Washing with water, rinsing in mercuric chlorid solution,
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 83
rubbing them with alcohol, and then painting the fingers in
weakened tincture of iodin combines the best resources we
have. The latter—the iodin—is objectionable, because of
the staining and because it blunts the tactile sense, so much
depended upon when digital work is actually necessary.
Wearing clean gloves while doing the preparatory
work, the washing and rinsing of the hands as above
proposed, avoiding unnecessary manipulations with the
fingers, and wearing sterilized, skin-tight gloves while
suturing are just so many practical means of averting
wound infection from the hands, and when these simple
means are resorted to hand infections are comparatively
rare. There remain the unavoidable infections when
the bare hands must be used.
Sponges
Absorbent cotton is the best sponging material for
general use in veterinary practice, especially where a
large number of sponges will be needed during a given
operation. Gauze comes second, and while decidedly the
safer, absorbent cotton is delivered in clean packages
and is easily sterilized whenever absolute purity is de-
manded. Our plan of handling cotton for important
operations is to place a sufficient amount in the sterilizer
with the instruments and when well boiled cool it off in
a basin of mercuric chlorid solution (1 to 1,000) made
with sterile water. This is then the assistant’s basin.
During the operation he takes his sponges from this
basin as fast as they are needed and of course casts
them aside when soiled. This plan tends to keep the
assistant’s hands safer by their repeated contact with
the antiseptic solution containing the cotton.
Where there are plenty of especially assigned assist-
ants to look after the surgical paraphernalia, as in
college clinics, sterile gauze sponges used in the same
84 WOUND TREATMENT
way are preferable. These may be resterilized for future
use.
Sponge sponges are very effectual in absorbing blood
from wounds, and on this account are defended as best
by some veterinarians. By keeping them in a strong
antiseptic solution they can of course be sterilized, but
unless these are used like the gauze and cotton sponges,
being cast aside when soiled, their use cannot be recom-
mended under any circumstance. It is best to dispense
entirely with the sponge and at once eliminate a very
common source of wound infection.
Solutions and Their Containers
There is no material about veterinary surgical opera-
tions more erroneously used than the antiseptic solution.
I find that veterinarians are still placing too much
dependence upon the microbicidal value of ‘chemical
substances dissolved for surgical use. Unless the water,
the basin, and even the drug are sterilized, no antiseptic
solution is safe. In fact, antiseptic solutions are one
of the commonest sources of wound contamination. They
soil more than they are capable of disinfecting. They
carry bacteria into wounds where none previously ex-
isted, and they are ineffective against bacteria lodged in
the tissues. The statement that pathogenc bacteria are
more viable than the cells of the body cannot be too often
repeated. The explanation of the stubbornness of wound
infections against antiseptics is found therein. The
simple truth is that antiseptics injure, devitalize, and
even kill cells to the advantage rather than to the dis-
advantage of bacteria growth.
From these facts it is evident that the antiseptic solu-
tions we use should be more intelligently prepared and
handled than is customary in veterinary surgical opera-
EEE
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 85
tions. Water from the well or hydrant brought in the
milk pail or stable bucket, no matter how clean looking
it may be, is a sure carrier of infection. To add to this
water an antiseptic drug does not improve matters as
‘much as is generally supposed; the solution is still an
infection carrier of the most certain sort. HExperimen-
tal studies of the viability of various microbes in the
different solutions used in surgical operations tell plainly
enough why wound infection from this source is so com-
mon. Sterilized water held .in a sterilized basin. without
any antiseptic drug is much safer than medicated water
that is laden with bacteria, as almost all waters are.
Analyzing the reason why sterilized water is still so
rarely found in veterinary operations, I find that the
principal argument against the use of this valuable and
very inexpensive product is that water boiled just as
the animal is about to be operated upon is always
brought to the scene of the operation too hot to be
handled, and as it does not cool very fast there is always
an inclination, in the haste of getting through with the
work, to cool it off with cold water. This of course
spoils everything; and knowing this, the country vet-
erinarian soon abandons his effort to stick strictly to
this product as a menstruum for his solutions.
It is, however, worth while insisting that every drop
of water to be used in any important operation should
be boiled for fifteen minutes and brought out in the
original vessel. The time allowed for it to cool is time
well spent. In my rural operations I frequently fill the
large wash boiler with water, place in it the basins,
dipper, bandages, and sponges to be used, and then boil |
all together for fifteen minutes. In the meantime the
instruments are being boiled in the regular instrument
sterilizer—an apparatus that every veterinarian should
carry with him everywhere. It requires about fifteen
86 WOUND TREATMENT
to twenty minutes for these to cool off, and this time
can be utilized in preparing the patient.
This is a general plan that every country practitioner
should follow sacredly. The unfortunate sequences of
many of my country operations during past years I
attribute to this source of infection. Suppuration ga-
lore, surgical septicemia, malignant edema, tetanus, peri-
tonitis, and other consequences following operations that
one has taken especial pains to do well may often be
traced to bad judgment in providing the solutions.
The best plan the country veterinarian can lay down
as a start for better surgery is the use of the housewife’s
wash boiler in the manner mentioned above.
In hospital operations sterilized water is more easy to
procure. It can be stored in large bottles ready for use,
and the instrument sterilizer should be large enough to
sterilize the basins into which the water is poured. Too
much dependence must not be placed in the hot water
from the hot-water tank even though it comes out steam-
ing hot. Tank water whose temperature is maintained
around 200 degrees Fahrenheit for hours is, however,
safe enough for ordinary surgical work.
Sutures
The certainty of wound infection from unsterilized
sutures is due largely to the fact that they sojourn so
long in the injured tissues. The bacteria they carry
always find a favorable environment for growth in the
enfeebled tissues they hold together, and even when
sterilized and placed with exceptional eare, stitch sup-
puration may develop from skin bacteria that cannot
be dislodged in the preparation of the surgical field.
On these accounts sutures in veterinary operations
call for special methods of handling. They must first
ee =
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 87
be boiled for at least fifteen minutes, bathed in pure
tincture of iodin, and then so handled as to prevent
contamination through trailing over unclean places or
from the soiled hands.
We defend the use of antiseptic sutures instead of
aseptic sutures chiefly on the grounds of expediency.
Such sutures can be handled more carelessly with the
bare hands, they are less apt to get soiled from acci-
dentally trailing over soiled places on the patient, and
stitch suppuration from skin bacteria is made negligible.
The nature of our operations demands this expedient.
This applies, of course, only to removable sutures, that is,
sutures for the skin. Buried sutures for the underlying
integuments need not be so treated, but should always be
purchased sterilized and in sealed containers. The veter-
inarian has no way of safely sterilizing raw gut, and
therefore should not undertake to do so.
In suturing wounds the needle is held in the needle-
holder, and the end of the thread that is handled may be
eut off when the needle is threaded. The assistant. may
then keep the dangling end from trailing over the pa-
tient by holding it up with forceps as it is drawn
through; or the surgeon may at this stage of the opera-
tion put on a pair of sterilized, skin-tight rubber gloves
’ and handle the needle and thread with the fingers, keep-
ing the thread in the palm of the hand to prevent trailing.
Either of these plans will answer.
There is no use in practicing other aseptic precautions
if any carelessness whatever in handling sutures is al-
lowed to creep in, because here we have a certain infec-
tion carrier. A wound may sometimes escape infection
‘from contaminated air, instruments, or hands, but never
from sutures that are not absolutely aseptic and carefully
handled.
88 WOUND TREATMENT
Wound Packing, Drainage Wicks, and Draining Tubes
Inasmuch as we continue to use compression packs to
control copious bleeding after some of our operations,
these are capable of acting as carriers of bad infections.
A soiled wound-pack sewed up tightly in a traumatic eav-
ity is a mighty dangerous object. In twenty-four hours
it is fetid, and in forty-eight hours, if not removed or the
sutures loosened to admit air, malignant edema is very
likely to have developed. The large cavities of ridgling
castration, of fistule of the withers, of poll evils, and of
large tumors are to be feared in this connection. Re-
cently a case of this kind came to my notice. A ridgling
castrated after some difficulty was packed with cotton
that, was simply disinfected in mercuric chlorid solution
made from well water and contained in a milk pail. The
wadding was held in place by snapping the edges of the
wound with a clamp forceps. When removed forty-eight
hours later the wadding was fetid, the scrotum was swol-.
len, and the patient stiff and sick. There was a per-
ceptible emphysema in the loose areolar tissue along the
inguinal canal. Two days later the patient was swollen
with an emphysematous edema along the ventral surface
of the body as far forward as the elbows. Death oc-
curred a few hours later. I have had similar results from
operations upon fistula of the withers where soiled pack-
ings were injudiciously allowed to remain sewed up too
long. These infections are wound-packing infections, and
must be reckoned with in wound treatment.
- The best wound packing is sterilized oakum, sterilized
by boiling and not alone with antiseptics. Oakum is bet-
ter than cotton for this purpose because the latter stub-
bornly mats into raw tissues and stays there for two or
three days. An oakum pack comes out en masse, leaving
no particles behind.
ES ee
a ee —————EEeEE
SS ee
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 89
For wicks to act as drainage in counter openings, or in
the lower commissure of wounds, sterilized antiseptic
gauze is most suited. Drainage tubes should be boiled
before being fixed into a wound. :
Protective Dressings as Conveyors of infection
Bandages, absorbent cotton, oakum, collodium, dust-
ing powders, and wound varnishes are the objects used
as protective dressings. The truth about wound treat-
ment in this connection is that a wound closed without
having been infected in the process of treatment is not
apt to become infected later. Postoperative infection I
know is often a very convenient cloak to cover up oper-
ative infection. The castrator, in all the seriousness of a
minister, chastises the owner of a dying colt for having
allowed it to inhabit a dirty stall when in fact the infec-
tion responsible for the stricken animal’s condition was
deposited with his own hands or his own unsterilized or
half-sterilized emasculator, at the time of the operation,
and this example explains the mystery of nearly all our
wound infections.
Collodium, dusting powders, and wound varnishes sel-
dom convey infections because they are clean, antiseptic,
and drying. Bandages and cotton, however, placed over
a wound, require attention as infection carriers. I ama
believer in antiseptic wraps for wounds, and depend
upon aseptic wraps only when renewal is frequent. An
aseptic bandage that becomes soaked with wound serosity,
or that holds wound discharges against the skin around
a wound, is not so good as one that contains iodoform,
mereury, or carbolic acid, because the serum in such a
bandage does not putrefy as soon as in an aseptic wrap.
It is our practice to dust a powder of iodoform, bis-
muth subiodid, or boric acid over the wound and then
cover this with cotton and a bandage soaked and rinsed
* out of mercuric chlorid solution (1 to 200). With these
90 WOUND TREATMENT
simple precautions protective dressings are deprived of
all harm.
The Surgical Field as a Conveyor of Infection
A good liberal zone around a wound or proposed seat
of a wound must be submitted to the classical cleansing
process, now regarded as standard for this purpose. It
consists in washing with water and soap, clipping, shav-
ing, rinsing, and rubbing briskly with mercuric chlorid
(1 to 500), and then painting with tincture of iodin.
This does not positively sterilize the skin of a hairy ani-
mal, but it combines the best means of producing the
safest possible field for a cutting operation.
The surgical field conveys infection during the opera-
tion by being directly at the wound, and after the opera-
tion by the growth of bacteria on the serum-soaked skin.
It is therefore evident that any laxity or omission here
1S serious.
Postoperative Conveyors of Infection
As mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs, postoper-
ative infection is not so common as is generally supposed
or, better still, not so common as the surgeon would have
his clients believe. That there are postoperative infec-
tions is of course admitted, but the search for causes will
usually be more successful if the operative methods are
serutinized.
It is, however, plain that the same careful handling of
everything that prevailed during the operation must be
continued during the after-care, especially during the
first’ four days. It is a misfortune to be compelled to
turn over the after-care of wounds to untrained hands,
but if we plan our after-care with this in view we can
: TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 91
generally succeed in keeping our really aseptic wounds
from harm.
e
The postoperative conveyors are the patient’s bed and
stall and the attendant’s hands, syringes, solutions, pow-
ders, and dressings.
The patient’s habitat is made safe by keeping the
wound covered, keeping the patient in the standing posi-
tion, and keeping up a sensible state of cleanliness in
the surroundings.
The handling of wounds by attendants should be
avoided. They might be entrusted with the dusting of
powder on a sutured wound, applying a clean piece of
gauze or cotton and wrapping a bandage over all, but
this is as far as any untrained hands should be trusted
in the treatment of aseptic wounds. A wound requiring
irrigation and renewal of drainage wicks or tubes re-
quires also the intelligent assistant or surgeon, as these
means are sure to infect.
Syringes and solutions in wound treatment should be
given into the hands of others only in the treatment of
suppurating cavities where refinement is unnecessary.
I would summarize the plans of handling the various
conveyors of infection as follows:
1. Operate in an atmosphere that is free from dust, and prevent
objects from being whirled about by the patient. Avoid
loose bedding, and moisten the patient to keep the hair
from flying.
2. Boil instruments for fifteen minutes and so handle them dur-
ing the operation as to prevent contamination. Call for
other instruments to replace those soiled.
3. Avoid touching the wound with the fingers. Use tissue for-
ceps, tumor forceps, and needle holders. It is seldom neces-
sary to touch wounds with the fingers. When digital work
is necessary, wash the hands, rinse them in mercuric chlorid
(1 to 500), and coat the finger tips with tincture of iodin.
4. Use only sterilized water and sterilized basins.
5. Prepare a large surgical field in the manner above recom-
- mended.
6. Use sterilized sutures and bathe them in tincture of iodin.
Keep them from trailing over the dirty body. Handle them
92 _ WOUND TREATMENT
with the needle holder, or else wear sterilized, skin-tight
gloves while suturing.
7. Protect wounds with antiseptic dressings instead of aseptic.
8. Attend yourself to the after-care of wounds instead of trust-
ing it to untrained hands.
9. Prevent wounds from coming into contact with the stall, bed-
ding, or ground.
Classification of Wounds
The time-honored custom of classifying wounds into
incised, lacerated, punctured, and so on, although almost
consecrated by usage, serves no useful purpose and might
therefore be entirely discarded in the study of wound
treatment. These names reflect only the character of the
causative instrument, and that without giving a hint
about the particular treatment they might require. As
a basis for a detailed description of wound treatment
these names are useless unless prefixed with simple, per-
_ pendicular, complex, superficial, oblique, deep, trans-
verse, soiled, mutilated, sheltered, venomous, or some
other descriptive adjective that would indicate oe plan
of management.
Take for example an incised wound, the basis of nearly
all surgical operations. That it was made with a sharp
instrument is less important in the treatment than the
fact that it was made with a dirty knife, that its direction
is such that it cannot be drained, or that it is located in a
place where muscular movements cannot be controlled.
These are a few of the elements that call for special man-
agement of animal wounds, and it is upon these that a
classification should be based.
The classification that appeals most to the writer is one
which at once indicates a particular plan of manage-
ment, as follows:
1. Aseptic incised wounds; wounds without loss of tissue or in
which the loss is not great.
2. Wounds with loss of underlying tissue which can be bridged
—”
: TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 93
over with the skin-and whose cavity can be drained by
gravitation of the discharges.
3. Wounds that cannot be drained by gravitation of the dis-
eharges. Open wounds.
4. Venomous wounds.
5. Punetured wounds.
6. Gun-shot wounds.
Aseptic Incised Wounds
These are always surgical wounds, made in a prepared
field with a sterilized knife and touched only with steri-
lized objects—sponges, hands, solutions, and. so on. In-
cised wounds accidentally inflicted. must never be placed
in this category, as the sickle, razor, scythe, saber, or dag-
ger capable of inflicting them are not aseptic and there-
fore soil the tissues in the process of making.’ Although
' these instruments may seem clean, they are actually
poisonous in many instances, depositing infections. that
make the wound behave badly, and when closed with
sutures with no provisions for drainage they may often
end in a threatening if not fatal septicemia. ai
-TREATMENT.—The handling of this class of aoa is
indeed. very simple. The first step is to close them up
completely with sutures so arranged as to bring and
maintain perfect apposition of all of the integuments—
skin, fascia, and muscle. Hach integument—usually only
the skin is involved—is brought into very accurate con-
tact without, however, tightening any part. sufficiently
to cause stitch necrosis. Sutures that havebeen boiled
fifteen minutes and then bathed in pure tincture of
iodin are the only sutures we use for this purpose. As
we have previously mentioned, these are recommended
because they are seldom soiled in’ the handling.
_ The second step is the protection against infection dur-
ing ‘the succeeding seven or eight days. The best method
is a varnish of collodium applied layer after layer as
94 WOUND TREATMENT
soon as the wound and environs can be dried of blood
and moisture. Collodium serves the double purpose of
protecting against soiling and of supporting the sutures.
On the limbs where bandaging is feasible, smothering
such a wound with iodoform or bismuth subiodid, pure or
mixed with boric acid, is a still better plan than the
appheation of a wound varnish. The powder should be
held against the wound with cotton. As bandages are
apt to bind or become disarranged, the dressing can
be renewed every second day without, however, disturb-
ing the sutures or the powder encrusted around them.
The redressing amounts to a renewal of the powder
that falls off when the cotton is removed. The delicate
fibers that will eventually mature into a firm union of
the two edges are not to be disturbed by any handling,
for if these are once broken there will be no primary
union, even if there is no infection.
During these days special efforts are made to provide
against mechanical injury due to the patient’s lying upon
the wound or rubbing it against the stall, or from move-
ments of the limbs and body. This can usually be done
in large animals by simply preventing decumbency for
eight days. It is impossible to protect a wound against
the strong movements of a horse’s getting up and lying
down, no matter where the wound is located about the
limbs and trunk.
The standing position for horses, and strong thick
wraps for small animals, is the best we can do to provide
against mechanical injury.
Between the seventh and the tenth days the sutures
may be removed. Sutures that are doing no good because
of having eut through one edge should be removed at
once, but otherwise hasty removal is inadivsable. Ten
days is often soon enough to remove sutures of the skin
over the large muscles (buttocks and shoulders). At
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 95
ten days the wound varnish or powder used to protect
the wound will be desquamating and can easily be re-
moved to gain a good view of the sutures. These are
removed without pulling the outside dried part through
the needle tract. Lifted from the surface with the tissue
forceps, they are cut with the scissors and then pulled
through from the other side.
The aseptic incised wound is now healed. It requires
no further attention. What a goal to strive for! What
a reward for good work! And what a wonder it is not
oftener sought! To find a wound healed when the sutures
are removed is a good surgeon’s pride. To have them
‘‘kick up’’ is a nightmare—a reflection on his cautious-
ness, his skill, or even his knowledge.
Wounds with Loss of Underlying Tissues
This type of wounds, that can be bridged over with
the skin and whose cavity ean be drained by gravitation
of the discharges, is one of the very commonest encoun-
tered in veterinary practice. It is much more common.
than the incised wound without loss of substance. This
class includes the wound of many surgical operations
as well as almost all of the accidental traumata sus-
tained about the legs, trunk, neck, and head. Whenever
a tumor or other object is excavated from the body the
‘surgeon always plans to bridge the excavation over with
the skin, or in the case of an accidental wound it is
always desirable to bring the skin and other integuments
into apposition over the underlying cavity. The aim
here is to reduce corporal blemishing to the minimum
by prompt surface healing, and to avoid the dangers of
anaerobic infections by keeping (in surgical wounds)
or making (in accidental wounds) the tissues thus coy-
ered over perfectly aseptic. _
96 WOUND TREATMENT
This wound distinguishes itself therapeutically from
the incised wound because provision must be made for
the escape of the serum that will exude from its walls,
which would fill up the cavity to the physical detriment
of the healing process and the decided advantage of in-
vading microbes.. Even though a wound is aseptic it must
never be allowed to harbor its secretions in any consider-
able quantity. Wounds of animals filled with serum be-
come putrid despite everything.
TREATMENT.—If such a wound is surgical, every effort
is made to prevent soiling of the tissues during the opera-
tion. If any are soiled by contact with dirt or flowing
pus, these are trimmed off with the scissors or scalpel
rather than depending upon any form of chemical ablu-
tion, the aim being to have at the end of an operation a
traumatic cavity that is absolutely free from micro-organ-
‘isms. The surroundings having been previously shaved
and disinfected, the wound is now ready to cover over by
suturing. An opening at the end of the cavity, or a
counter opening especially made, is provided for the
escape of the serosity that will exude more or less
copiously during the succeeding week. If the orifice thus
provided is simply kept open so that every dram of the
discharge will flow out, there is no other treatment re-
quired except that of maintaining a suitable protection
of the sutured portion against external contamination
and injury. If infection of the cavity is prevented dur-
ing the first five days there will be less chance for any
suecessful invasion of microbes thereafter. That is, the
first few days, while the tissues are still weakened from
the injury they have sustained and before a protective
reaction has developed, is the time during which special
care must be taken to prevent them from being inocu-
lated with the gauze, the syringe, the fingers, or any
object that may be needed to keep the orifiee working
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS of
as a drain. At the end of ten days the sutures may be
removed, but as the traumatic cavity will require another
week, or even a fortnight, to cicatrize, the drainage must
be continued. In wounds whose cavities have consider-
able size three weeks should be sufficient time to heal
them. Infected wounds of the same size require six weeks
to two months or even longer for healing.
The accidental wounds of this class interest the prac-
titioner most. They include almost every bodily injury
that animals sustain accidentally by contact with objects
capable of lacerating the skin and underlying muscles.
Kicks on the buttocks, the thigh, the shoulder, the breast;
wire cuts in the heels, the forearm, the hock; and almost
all manner of traumatism from collisions, nearly all
belong to this class.
The veterinarian here is confronted with the problem
of healing up an ugly wound often of considerable di-
mensions, not infrequently invading the muscles deeply—
that is, bruised, torn, and soiled. The desiderata are to
heal the wound quickly and to leave behind as little
blemish as possible. The ugly scars that mar the bodies
of so many splendid horses attest the poor initial treat-
ment such wounds have received.
I am bearing fully in mind the obstacles that con-
front the country practitioner arriving on the scene of
such an accident. The patient is often intractable, the
- surroundings are not inviting, help is scarce, and last
but not least the character of the work required to give
the wound a strictly refined treatment is not compre-
hended by those in charge. ‘‘I guess you had better sew
it up, doc,’’ is the usual idea of the treatment required.
There is seldom any conception of what this suggestion
entails if followed out in strict accordance with the rules
of modern surgical procedure.
With this prevailing notion of things the rent is
98 WOUND TREATMENT
usually patched up with needle and thread after a per-
functory ablution with an antiseptic solution. Four days
later it is an open wound again, more seriously and more
deeply infected than if it had been left entirely to the
mercies of nature. To change this order of affairs is now
our serious duty, and in view of the fact that it is exceed-
ingly easy to show the difference between good wound
treatment and poor wound treatment the objection to put-
ting a stiff initial cost on the treatment of such a wound
will not be long lived. We have done it in a city prac-
tice and I am sure the country practitioner can do
likewise. |
Formerly we treated accidental wounds of all kinds,
except enormous ones, in the stables. We secured the
patient with the twitch and sideline, washed the wound,
sewed it up after more or less of a running fight with
the patient, and then applied whatever protection best
suited. In the usual four or five days we were always
called again to do the work over. ‘‘The stitches have
broken out,’’ was the usual ery. Sometimes a second at-
tempt at closure was made, but more often the dangling
skin was trimmed and open-wound treatment applied
during the remaining long process of cicatrization. In
such cases there was the cost of the first treatment; of a
number of periodical visits during the succeeding six
weeks; of antiseptic lotions, astringent lotions, and pow-
ders, without accounting for the costly days of disability.
To-day we bring such patients to the hospital, devote
two or three hours to the initial treatment, keep the
patient in the hospital eight days, and usually return it
to work at the end of two weeks, or in three in cases of
extensive wounds. In the former cases the sear was large,
indelible, conspicuous; in the latter there is often no
plain evidence that a wound has ever existed. The cost
to the client is about the same in both cases, but in the
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 99
latter the money is earned by skill while in the former
it was not earned at all; the patient would have been
about as well off without any expert (?) interference;
common everyday home treatment would have done just
as well. In the former the patients were marred for
life, while in the latter their full value is restored. In the
former the patients were disabled two months, in the
latter two to three weeks. Our plan of handling acci-
dental wounds of the body is as follows:
1. Restraint.—Even tractable patients always put up
a pretty vigorous opposition against interference with a
wound recently inflicted. They especially object to the
suturing, and as wounds are often located where there
is danger of the veterinarian sustaining personal injury,
it is difficult and tedious to carry out the treatment
without some form of effectual control. Much the best
plan is to use the operating table. Removal to the hos-
pital should be insisted upon where the distance is not
too great. Here the patient will be well controlled and
well positioned to carry out every detail from beginning
to end. For outdoor work the standing position will be
found better than casting harnesses. In the latter
- almost every wound is in an awkward position near the
ground, difficult of access and in tiresome position for
the operator to work so long. Some form of improvised
stocks to keep the patient from lunging about, supple-
_ mented with a sideline or breeding hopples, may be made
to answer the purpose. Then the operation may be made
less painful by wiping the internal surface of the skin
with two-per-cent cocain solution as far from the edges
as the needle points will be located. This will greatly
but not entirely control the pain of suturing. This same
form of anesthesia may also be used-when the patient is
secured on the operating table. It prevents annoying
struggles which raise dust and otherwise interfere with
100 WOUND TREATMENT
the work. Respiratory anesthesia is not applicable be-
cause the operation is of too long duration.
For wounds on the legs we have found the casting har-
ness better than the standing position because the legs
are never well immobilized standing, and the surgeon
is forced into a very uncomfortable bending position, par-
ticularly if the wound is about or below the knees. or
hocks.
In every form of recumbent restraint some care must
always be exercised in letting the patient up without
inflicting violence to the sutured wound. The forcible
movements of the legs may stretch a sutured wound wide
open by tearing either the sutures or the skin in which
they are inserted. In taking from the operating table
a horse that has just been sutured about the buttock, or
which has been operated for shoe boil, we always keep
the foot of the affected leg in the hopple until it lands
safely to the floor and supports weight. Otherwise a
swing might do much harm. For wounds of the legs
treated in the casting harness ample protection can al-
ways be given against such injury by using plenty of
bandaging material, and by helping the patient promptly
to its feet without unnecessary struggles.
2. DISINFECTION.—We always try to begin this part of
the treatment before securing the animal, by giving the -
body a thorough cleaning. Dried mud on the legs,
feathers, and abdomen must always be curried and
brushed off. Otherwise a veritable halo of dust will
cloud the whole atmosphere when the patient is strug-
gling during the operation. A good brushing and then
a wiping of the whole body with a wet towel are essen-
tial. A preoperative bath where there are accommo-
dations for such treatment would of course be better, but
as animal bathrooms are not usually available, the above
method of cleaning must answer the purpose.
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 101
The patient once secured, the first step is to shave the
region about the wound. A good liberal field is shaved, '
not merely a narrow strip along the edges. As shaving
requires previous washing of the hairs to soften them,
the wound itself will become additionally soiled in this
process by the lather and hairs falling into it, but as
subsequent treatment will attend to this, little harm will
be done. It is, however, not advisable to be unduly care-
less in this matter. By shaving first a narrow strip along
the margin, drawing the razor away from the edge, much
of this hair-soiling may be avoided. MHair-soiling can
also be prevented somewhat by wadding the cavity with
cotton while the shaving is being done.
In a large wound this shaving is no small undertaking,
but in no case must it be omitted or slighted on that
account.
The next step is to disinfect the shaved skin. Brisk
friction with mercuric chlorid solution (1 part to 500 of
sterile water) comes first, then it is painted with tincture
of iodin, or, what is still better, a solution of iodin erystals
in ether. Two drams of iodin to one pound of ether is
the solution we are now using for skin disinfection. It
seems to assure a better skin disinfection than does the
aleoholic solution. It penetrates into the recesses of the
skin better than the tincture, and thus effects a deeper
disinfection.
The surroundings having been thus prepared, atten-
tion is now directed to the raw tissues. Here we find
torn muscle tissue, shreds of fascia, nerves, vessels, sub-
cutaneous areolar tissue, all more or less soiled. Every
part of this motley surface is infected and there is no
way of disinfecting it with chemicals if the wound must
be closed. Strong disinfecting chemical substances that
would be capable of killing the microbes now harbored on
and within this anfractuous surface would also cauterize
102 WOUND TREATMENT
it and thus produce a lot of debris that would have to
be east off by the healthy elements beneath. Such treat-
ment is of course out of reason where the cavity must be
bridged over with the skin. Ordinary antiseptic ablu-
tions are inadequate; they never actually disinfect any-
thing. Every attempt we have ever made to bring this
surface of wounds into a safe state for suturing with so-
lutions has ended in disappointment. Disastrous suppu-
ration ensued and primary union of the skin was pre-
vented in every case. So uniform was this result that
we, like many others, fell back on open-wound treatment
for a time as much the best and safest plan of treating
practically all accidental wounds. It gave better results
than the closing of wounds that were harboring infected
tissues beneath the sutured integument. For a long time
we only sutured accidental wounds for policy’s sake—to
appease a request—knowing all the while it was a use-
less procedure, and we always prepared for the inevi-
table breaking open a few days later, at which time the
real treatment of the wound began.
We are now submitting such wounds to a mechanical
disinfection we have called ‘‘uncarpeting.’’ That is, we
trim off all of the surface sheet-like, beginning above and
omitting nothing save possibly a synovial capsule, large
blood vessel, or an important nerve. These are, how-
ever, seldom encountered in wounds of this class. A
sharp scalpel, scissors, and tissue forceps are used, and
as the surface is loosened, the loose pieces are washed
off by a stream of sterilized water poured from a pitcher
_ by an assistant. The edges of the skin must be turned up
where it is loosened from the body and its under surface
submitted to the same trimming. Where there is nothing
loose to trim off, the wound is scraped with the scalpel
as the stream of water washes off the scrapings. The
edges of the skin must be included. Sometimes simply
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 103
scraping them, at other times trimming them straight
with the scissors, may be thought best, depending upon
their condition.
A wound thus mechanically disinfected is a pure
wound, as aseptic as a wound of the surgeon’s own mak-_
ing, and it has a large, clean, disinfected field around it.
In short, it is a fit wound to close up, and if closed prop-
erly it will behave in the manner that will please.
The wound cavity, having thus been ridden of all
microbe-laden tissues, is a safe cavity to bridge over with
the skin, but to prevent subsequent contamination provi.
sions must be made to prevent accumulation of the serum
that will exude from the walls. That is, the cavity must
be drained. Serum must not be allowed to remain even
momentarily in a wound cavity, for if this microbe food
is offered, putrefaction of the serum, followed by infec.
tion of the living walls, is sure to follow. The certainty
with which microbes creep into favorable places for their
esrowth is now well known to students of aseptic surgery
The favorable environment is as certain a source of in-
fection as manual soiling. Mutilated, bruised, weakened
tissues are prey for microbes, and when these are soaked
in a serosity a few otherwise innocuous organisms may
soon develop a formidable infection, while strong and
only slightly injured tissues would destroy them. In
short, when we create a favorable medium and an incu-
‘bator, the microbes are usually there to do mischief,
while on the other hand if we create unfavorable soils
for microbian growth infections become negligible.
These are laws in wound treatment, and they must be
obeyed as sacredly as the laws relating to the sterilization
of infection carriers, bands, instruments, and so on.
Whether these infections of bruised wounds are endoge-
nous or exogenous is less important to the practitioner
104 WOUND TREATMENT
than the fact that they are very certain to occur in a
large percentage of cases.
To better illustrate this point, the prevailing contro-
versy in the medical profession over the open treatment
of fractures might be mentioned to advantage. During
the last few years the old, time-honored method of treat-
ing fractures of long bones by simple reposition and
retention has been discarded by many surgeons for the
new open method. That is, an invading incision was
made into the traumatic cavity and the segments fitted
together and retained with screws, nails, or plates. With
asepsis as a protection against complications, it at first
seemed this apparently sensible method would soon be-
come the universal one for the treatment of fractures.
Subsequent developments, however, proved that the plan
was not entirely harmless. Many cases became infected
with disastrous results. Why? Because a fracture with
its injured tissues, blood-clots, outpoured serum, and im-
paired circulation is a favorable field for infection.
To-day, on this account alone, the open method is being
abandoned except in special cases. In veterinary prac-
tice the wound of castration might be used to illustrate
the same point. The crushed spermatic cord, the aeeumu-
lated clot and serum, and the closed incision combine
conditions especially favorable for microbian growth. In
fact, if any bacteria are deposited they are prone to
develop a serious infection very rapidly.
We must, therefore, plan as perfect a system of drain-
age as possible in all wounds of this class, for otherwise
our other good work will be useless. During the trim-
ming process—that is, the mechanical disinfection re-
ferred to in the preceding paragraph—special care is
taken to groove channels toward the proposed drainage
orifice. This done, the skin fiap is ready to be sutured.
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 105
Suturing the Skin Flap
At this stage of the procedure the veterinarian should
don a pair of sterilized skin-tight gloves or else handle
needle and thread with the needle-holder, with the aid of
an assistant to keep the dangling end from trailing
about over soiled places. ‘T'he former method—the wear-
ing of gloves—is the better, because suturing can then
be done much faster and also more accurately. The first
effort is to baste the flap with crucial sutures arranged
somewhat loosely and about one inch apart, some care
being taken to bring the flap to the place it actually
belongs in order to prevent wrinkling and to avoid ten-
sion. This basting process is of great importance, be-
cause if it is well done the rest is a mere routine. The
edges themselves are not yet approximated; there is a
gap along the entire flap. An accurate approximation is
now effected with interrupted sutures placed one quarter
of an inch apart and about three sixteenths of an inch
from the edges. Every fourth or fifth stitch of these
interrupted sutures is made longer—about a quarter of
an inch from the edges, or even more. The latter sutures
are retaining sutures, like the crucial sutures, while the
short ones are the real approximating media. The short
sutures tend to prevent the infolding of edges that is sure
to be produced by the longer ones. Infolding of the
- edges must be corrected at every point, as union is impos-
sible unless the raw edges are brought into contact.
Every part is thus closed up except the place planned
for the drainage orifice. The size of the orifice or counter
opening specially made must harmonize with the size of
the traumatic cavity. A large wound will require a
larger opening than a small wound, because a free outlet
is essential.
106 WOUND TREATMENT
In the short, interrupted sutures, which only pinch up
the very edges of the skin, lies the secret of success. The
greatest error of suturing wounds of anmals seems to
have been that of putting in long wmterrupted sutures.
These prevent union by blocking the circulation, while.
the short sutures, which pick up only little bits of skin,
permit the circulation of the blood freely to the very
edges, where it is most needed. ¢
The wound is now well repaired, and the skin flap is
neatly approximated to the other edge of the wound with-
out stretching. That is, there is no strain on the flap;
it lies comfortably in the place where it properly belongs.
There is, however, still some danger of damage from
movements of the underlying muscles, despite this perfect
apposition of the edges of the skin. This danger we re-
duce to the minimum by fixing the skin down to the
body with Mayo’s running loop, put in from one to three
inches apart, according to the amount of strain to which
the flap will be subjected by movements and edema. On
prominent convexities of the body, such as buttocks or
shoulder, there will be more strain than in flat places like
the forehead or costal surface. In the former these loop
sutures are placed close together; in the latter, they may
not be needed at all. It is our judgment after several
years of trial, in many wounds treated, that the resort —
to the use of Mayo’s running loop is the greatest boon
to wound suturing in animals. Without them we have
failed even when everything else was done well and con-
ditions were favorable. Since resorting to them we sel-
dom fail to heal these wounds promptly.
For those readers who are not acquainted with this
special suture, and especially for those who have no access
to literature in which it is deseribed, the following de-
scription is given:
‘‘Mayo’s running loop’’ is a series of continuous loops
TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 107
that cross the wound line at a right angle. They are
made to extend from about three inches on one side to
about the same distance on the other.
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OPEN JOINTS
By MART R. STEFFENS, V.S., M.D.C.
This subject will be considered in two parts—open
joints of recent origin in fresh wounds, and those of a
chronic or subacute and infected character.
Fresh Wounds Lacerating a Capsular Ligament
It frequently happens as the result of accidents that
an articulation is involved in the trauma. While all
accidental wounds in veterinary patients are to be con-
sidered surgically unclean, it is well not to carry this
theory too far. Unless much extraneous matter, such
as hair, chaff, etc., has entered directly into the articula-
tion do not allow antiseptic solutions to penetrate to the
synovial surfaces when you clean up such a wound.
Swab the surroundings as clean as possible with a cot-
ton swab, but do not allow any of the solution to reach
the joint. Nothing seems to irritate a synovial joint
more than water.
After the surrounding eee are thoroughly Sead
and dried with clean, dry cotton, the wound cavity is
completely filled with chemically pure powdered sodium
‘bicarbonate, some of which is even gently pressed so as
to enter the synovial cavity. It is important that
enough be used. A thin layer of cotton is now made
to cover the lesion and is retained either with col-
lodion or bandages.
This dressing is allowed to remain for twenty-four
hours. At the end of that time it is removed and
the wound carefully inspected for synovia. No instru-
173
174 WOUND TREATMENT
mentation is permissible; the inspection is confined to
looking into the wound for traces of synovia. If no
synovia is to be seen the wound is treated along regular
lines.
If synovia is present in the wound the treatment is
repeated as on the first occasion and again left on for
twenty-four hours. More than two such applications are
seldom necessary, and unless the wound has been very
large and is very severely infected, good, healthy granu-
lations and no synovia are present after the first twenty-
four or forty-eight hours.
Chronic, Infected, Purulent Joints.
The treatment of these is radical. While it happens
now and then that cases of this kind recover with dila-
tory methods of treatment, it is only by radical pro-
cedure that prompt and positive results can be ob-
tained.
The various articulations of the equine present vary-
ing degrees of severity and obstinacy in this affection.
The elbow joint stands at the head of the list of fatal
terminations. JI would class the coffin joint second.
Next in order I would place the hock; last, the stifle.
The following method of treatment is always suc-
cessful in cases in which the patient has not become
greatly emaciated and still retains the greater part of
his vitality and good spirits. It is successful in fifty
per cent of the latter cases, but it is of no avail (nor is
any other treatment) in cases where the patient is down
and refuses to eat. Such cases rally occasionally for a
temporary period, only to go down again later and die.
If the surgeon will select for this treatment cases which
are, while moderately grave, still in good general con-
dition, or even fair, he can promise his client good
results.
é OPEN JOINTS 175
To carry out this treatment properly it is essential
to cast the patient either on the ground or on the
table. The following procedure is then adopted:
Thoroughly cleanse the region of the joint involved,
shave and scrub. Irrigate the joint cavity for at least
ten minutes with a solution of hydrargyrum chloridum
corrosium (1 to 3,000) at body temperature. This must
be done with the utmost antiseptic precaution and great
delicacy. If the opening in the joint is in such a posi-
tion that good drainage cannot be vubtained, another
opening is to be made surgically at-the desired point.
Having thoroughly flushed the joint cavity with the
solution, for which purpose a fountain syringe is best,
it is now again flushed for a considerable time with
sterile physiological saline solution at body tempera-
ture. These washings are to be discontinued only when
the fluid comes out clear and free from pus, flakes, or
detritus. It may take a half hour of continuous irri-
gation to accomplish this. When this has been accom-
plished the interior of the joint may be considered sur-
gically clean and it is now injected with the following
suspension :
year lidd © Gulles oe eo i es Biv.
Mie Oy Ce IEA Cig Shore sen aie ee aoe ae aia et Ziv
M. Sig. Shake before using.
This is to be injected into the cavity slowly after
plugging up all openings except the one through which
it is to be introduced. The entire quantity is injected
so as to be sure every portion of the interior comes in
contact with the suspension. As soon as this is done
the entire joint is swathed in clean cotton held in place
by such bandages or retaining appliances as the surgeon’s
ingenuity may devise. This dressing is to remain in
place for two weeks. |
\
176 WOUND TREATMENT
In nine out of ten cases a complete cure will have
been effected when the dressing is removed at the end
of this time. In rare cases it may be necessary to repeat
the treatment. It is very important that the entire
joint be heavily swathed in cotton which must be held
snugly, yet not tightly, in place. |
The patient must be-kept as quiet as possible until
the two weeks have elapsed, and during this time should
receive a dram of hexamethylenamin in a pail of drink-
ing water three times daily.
Hexamethylenamin is of much value in various forms
of arthritis; it has been found that it is excreted by
serous membranes and it has been demonstrated to be
present in synovial cavities within an hour or two after
administration. Its antiseptic action is due to formal-
dehyde, which is liberated during the process of elimi-
nation.
—
TETANUS FOLLOWING SURGICAL
WOUNDS
By HENRY SMITH, V.HS.
Up to the present time tetanus following operation
has been put to the charge of the surgeon. The impli-
cation has been that he introduced the tetanus through
suture, lotions, dressings, instruments, sponges, or from
his own hands or those of his assistants—not a very
comforting refiection for the surgeon. Why should this
tetanus occur in spite of the utmost care on the part
of the surgeon? I believe that the reason is explained
by Sir David Semple’s paper. An anaerobic area has
been left—the sine qua non for the development of
tetanus from tetanus spores. Sir David Semple has
shown that the spores of tetanus are frequently present
in the human intestine. He has shown that when tetanus
spores are injected into a given area of a guinea pig, and
quinin injected into a different area of the same guinea
pig, tetanus bacilli are to be found in the anaerobic
slough produced by the quinin and nowhere else, and
that a control guinea pig which has similarly received
an equal number of spores, but has not received any
- quinin, is not affected by tetanus. How do the spores
reach the anaerobic area in this case? I can explain it
only on the supposition of some of them traveling
through the blood circuit and eventually becoming
stranded in the area of dead anaerobic tissue, where
they develop into toxin-producing tetanus bacilli.
177
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FAVORITE WOUND TREATMENTS
Applications for Successful Wound Treatment
If a wound is to be stitched, it is washed out with
boiled water to which has been added one dram mercuric
chlorid and one-half ounce hydrochloric acid to the pint.
Then it is stitched and covered with plain sterile gauze,
kept moist with five-per-cent solution of carbolic acid in
boiled water. The wound is dusted daily with a mix-
ture of boric acid and iodoform. On wounds not closed
by sutures I use the following:
Powdered aloes, one ounce; denatured alcohol, four
ounces, and linseed oil as much as will suffice to make
one pint.
These treatments or applications are made daily. As
far as results are concerned, I believe I get primary
union as often as any of the general practitioners in
the rural districts, and more often than most of them.
In open wounds the aloes-alcohol-and-linseed-oil mix-
ture is a sure winner. I have found poor animals bound
with all kinds of mechanical devices (most of them
cruel and all of them unnecessary), to keep from gnaw-
ing and biting their wounds. I have never seen a wound
or sore—surgical, accidental, or constitutional—that the
animal would lick, gnaw, or bite after the above dressing
had been used twice in twenty-four hours.
ar Poke ASH:
Centerville, Iowa.
179
180 WOUND TREATMENT
Nail Pricks
Open the puncture thoroughly to allow good drain- —
age, then cleanse the parts well with a good antiseptic,
such as a 1-5000: bichlorid solution, and in severe cases
apply the following freely, twice daily:
fodin' cystals. . 62%). S esas « s\0's a wlan es 5 nnn div
-» Sulphuric ether... 55% < f.0 sis see J
have seen a rapid subsidence of all swelling after a few
applications. W. P. BossENBERGER, D.V.M.
Williams, Iowa.
Wound Dressings
When I make an incision, other than for the opening
of a sinus or an abscess, I use a dressing of boracie¢
and tannic acids, for two reasons: I want to protect
the wound against outside infection and I want the skin
and stitches dry so that, barring infection while operat- |
ing, I shall have healing by first intention. The same —
applies to accidental wounds that are fresh and can be
advantageously stitched.
- FAVORITE WOUND TREATMENTS 181
Where there is pus already in the wound, I use no
antiseptics or dressings, except possibly for the first
cleansing, or rather washing out, and then my hobby:
is a light, wine-colored solution of potassium perman- |
ganate or a normal salt solution. In this class of wounds,
bacterins or nuclein, or both, get me the results, and I
let the wounds alone: I simply cleanse around. the
wound, taking care to keep the discharge from getting
in and on the hair as far as possible.
‘In the case of freshly punctured wounds, if deep, I
give antitetanie serum, and, of course, bacterins, but
let the wound alone after having secured as good drain-
age as it is possible to give it. _
Occasionally a wound with exuberant granulations
needs tannic acid or some styptic even as strong as
- stibium chlorid to hold it in check.
E. M. Bronson.
Hartford City, Ind.
Things I Have Noticed About Wounds
1. Wire cuts do better in the summer than in winter.
2. I have received very little benefit from the use of
bacterins in the treatment of wire cuts. |
5. If the periosteum is injured the recovery is greatly
retarded.
4. Peroxid of hydrogen does more harm than good.
5. All unnecessary digital manipulation should be
avoided.
6. Wounds across the face heal more rapidly than
in any other part of the body.
7. Rope burns are harder to heal than wire cuts.
.8. The majority of wire cuts come after an electrical
storm.
182 WOUND TREATMENT
9. Wounds do better with a dry dressing than with
liquid applications. we
10. Bandages as a rule are a hindrance rather hee i
a help toward rapid recovery. i
11. The use of slings is very beneficial in the treat. i ‘
ment of open joints of all kinds. Re
12. Ointments of all kinds are filth gatherers. oa
13. The common barn sponge has no place in the
modern wound treatment. a
_ 14. And lastly, the teats in cows are practically the! 4
only part of their anatomy that becomes injured from
barbed wire, and beware, young man, when treativg — $s
them. F. H. Burt, M.D.C. :
Chenoa, Ill.
22, TILES ORT DG SoC alae ae a ae eS ee 155
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muse ptics, factors affecting action Of... 2.2 sic. sce ee e's 14
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BAartenns tn wound treatment. 2%). 2 dni. bade see ss oo 8 ee 125
ES ERMOMNYCER A, Noe Aspe aie 2 are ieie dn See al ccn's suds whale Ve Ae sted Sor ote 42
SEE DIPSET ES oe er lho gl arse ae aes erties NS ig a ea 21
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EMM RMU ois ter aes pa ae, wy cic o Bw oleae won os 6 Shave Sn etnies oye 'o'e ee 61
ERR RPA O TN he ace? Gans get als Sibi kale cies Scie VSS bows ene S 6 14
SuEOiHic an ceLed, purulent JOIMUS As. BU. oe eee alee och e's 174
Striscecatiouror wounds: !s..c.00. sl soe Shee Shee a 92, 125
Cleansine and disinfecting Wounds... : 1. 6 EA aiseegon a eile 180
Cope: Pasa See Re Cee ee 165, 173
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SOR RaPT Ea Heep IGRL IRE tet teh nis TL MO al oN CSE TS oe Soe h eek I at 134
Packing EOE SAM OMIUG Sete kt ua aoe solos che e'aiy os Op een te ces 88
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SEO GIVE INL CCLIOUs 002 °5 5 joints cislerelale os she, jee lstateleie e's eh tes 90
Poashoperative treatment. of Wounds. ss. in. s0s fae hic ees «ne 69
Penmcitire “WOUMdS ace sie be h ks t ton oe ee Mme, 52, 119
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Skin, suturing the....... Pei cae EE aaa AN eG, bese erans 105
Soluhsonscanayt herr. Combaimerscercicesc Neco os a ohet cs ot 06 ecb lec eueee.e 84
~
186 WOUND TREATMENT
Sponges 2. sous eae oe od oc sla selerela seid eam © Bale ae 83
Staphylococeus pyogenes albus. ...........+.+sen+ss yee 41
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus... .........+s0<085 5 see 41
Staphylococcus pyogenes citréus.......6.. 4.00.06 seu eee oo 41
Sterilization < oo). seis avo eo ew oie a wd ee a hg © et 146
Sterilization of instruments... ....../4:.+...++ «snes ee . 45
Streptococcus ‘GUL. yo.05's o.c. 5 wie:sim en's 2 bonis os 6 bie wae ee 42
Streptococcus erysipelatis. ..05 . 0s. oe as ee 5 Oh one en ‘wd bee 164
Wire © CUTE. acid Sede 2 bic idl Lin shan’ 9 mine cio bie bie w oun aa 181
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