Surgical ward work and nursing : a handbook for nurses and others / by Alexander Miles.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Surgical ward work and nursing : a handbook for nurses and others / by Alexander Miles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    dust over septic wounds, but in aseptic cases it is not only useless but harmful. Under no circumstances should it be applied to any wound, unless it has been sterilized by heat, or with I in 20 carbolic acid or i in lOOO corrosive. Gauze or worsted charged with iodoform, 10 to 20 per cent., is used to stuff cavities. For this purpose, one long strip of gauze is preferable to a number of shorter strips, as it is more easily removed, and there is no risk of leaving any in the wound. A bundle of strands of iodoform worsted, wrapped round with oiled silk, or enclosed in a split drainage-tube is known as the cigarette drain. It is em- ployed to drain deep septic wounds. Iodoform should be kept in a cool, dry place. FIG. 6.—POWDER DREDGER. Caution !—In children and in old weakly people, symp- toms of iodoform poisoning sometimes occur when large quantities have been used, and especially if the powder has been blown into a cavity and left there. These symptoms vary much, and differ in the young and old. They are, loss of appetite, vomiting, giddiness, mental depression or ex- citement, and sometimes more grave brain symptoms. Should these occur, the drug must be discontinued, and starchy substances and stimulants administered. In sus- ceptible patients even a small iodoform dressing may pro- duce poisonous effects in the form of an intense redness or a pustular eruption in the surrounding skin. Its chief advantages are: (i) Its special action in tuber-