Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ...a wet dressing should be applied. The type of solution depends largely on the preference of the surgeon, but it is well established that a wet dressing, to be serviceable, must be kept wet constantly. A large, loose dressing should be applied well beyond the area of cellulitis, and the patient told to keep the dressing constantly wet. Far too frequently patients are told to keep a dressing wet and then given a small bottle of solution with which the bandage is supposed to be kept wet. Unless at least a quart of solution is given, it is absurd to believe that the dressing can be kept sufficiently wet for more than a few hours. A practical method, which has been used successfully in manyr cases, is the intermittent boric acid bath. The wound having been dressed, the patient is given a few ounces of powdered boric acid and told to prepare a solution by adding one level teaspoonful of boric acid to a pint of boiling water. After this has been cooled, he is instructed to soak the hand, without removing the dressing for ten minutes every two hours. It is found that this treatment keeps the dressing sufficiently wet during the entire day. If, on the other hand, the patient is told merely to keep the dressing wet, he will rarely keep it much more than moist unless an extension of the inflammation has impressed upon him the importance of a continuous wet dressing. The continuou bath which was so in vogue a few years ago has been carefully tried out by us in cases showing infections of both hands, one hand being treated in the continuous bath and the other in a loose wet dnving, with a splint applied to keep the part at rest. In almost every case the hand treated in the continuous bath healed less rapidly than the other. 1 A good working rule which...
