On excision of the knee-joint / by G.M. Jones.

  • Jones, George Matthew, 1805-1861.
Date:
[1854]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On excision of the knee-joint / by G.M. Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    practice and remarks so much valuable information is derived, I am forced in advocating excision of the knee-joint to fall back on those cases which have come under my own care, and thus to appear egotistical against my wish; at the same time I must confess my impression, that remarks from one who has been completely thrown on his own resources, are of more value in forwarding the cause on which so much interest has of late been excited, than those of men who are without practical experience. The question may naturally be asked, why this operation has been more successful in my hands than in those of others? The reasons are obvious; consisting in the great advantages arising from the locality and consequent salubrity of the Jersey Hospital. It is not surrounded by high and crowded buildings and a dense population, but has a large piece of ground in front, and a garden at the back, both of which are open to the patients for exercise; and its left wing is scarcely two hundred yards from the sea. The wards are airy, and but rarely crowded; and I have hitherto made it an invariable rule to have a separate, well-ventilated room, as well as a special nurse or nurses, for each of the patients on whom excision or any other important operation is performed. These incalculable advantages are unattaina¬ ble in metropolitan hospitals, and to them alone, with the stimulating treatment commenced immediately after the operation, and steadily persevered in for a considerable time, is my success to be attributed. The objections raised against the operation are twofold. Its severity, the shock to the system, danger from haemor¬ rhage, erysipelas, burrowing sinuses, wasting suppuration, &c., forming the first class; and from these it is argued that amputation is much less hazardous. Then, supposing the patient to have overcome or escaped these dangers, we are told that want of union in many cases renders the limb use¬ less ; and if the subject be a child, the absence of growth in the excised member is brought forward to prove that a wooden leg, in all instances, is of much greater utility than