Arriving At A Surgical Diagnosis

Author : George Emerson Brewer
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330389584
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (895 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book A Student's Manual of Surgical Diagnosis written by George Emerson Brewer and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Student's Manual of Surgical Diagnosis The chief aim of the practicing surgeon should be to eradicate disease, to repair the results of bodily injury, and to relieve suffering. Success in treatment depends largely upon accurate diagnosis. Every student of medicine, therefore, at an early period should acquire a diagnostic method which in the end will enable him to recognize with a reasonable degree of accuracy the various surgical lesions and pathologic processes. The methods of reasoning employed by different surgeons and teachers, in arriving at a diagnosis in a given case, differ widely. The two extremes would be represented by the methods popularly known as the "snap diagnosis," and the "diagnosis by exclusion." The following circumstance will give a fair idea of the two methods. An eminent practitioner of internal medicine was called to attend a middle aged woman suffering from continuous fever, progressive loss of weight and strength, and mild delirium. On entering the patient's room he was told that the illness began by headache, loss of appetite, and general malaise; that the symptoms had gradually increased in severity for ten days, during the last eight of which the patient had remained in bed. There had been no chill, no vomiting, no cough, no pain, no diarrhea, and no urinary disturbances. The patient appeared dull, the lips were dry, the mouth partly open showing the teeth covered with sordes. His examination consisted in looking at the tongue, which was heavily coated, and hastily palpating the abdomen, which was slightly distended and presented a firm oval tumor in the splenic region. The temperature was 104, pulse 100, respiration 20. As a result of his five-minute visit and one-minute examination he stated that the patient was suffering from typhoid fever, and advised her removal to the hospital. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.