HMS 118 (STS/HIST 118) Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-3: Femoral Artery, Collateral Circulation, Aneurysm
12 Feb 2018
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Chapter 1: the coach driver"s knee december 1785. Coachman"s health problem: popliteal aneurysm behind knee, amputation as common practice, no anesthesia or antiseptics. Hunter"s approach to surgery (6-7: most techniques of the time had not changed a great deal from medieval times. Knowledge of anatomy was considered useful but not vital: few lessons were learned from patient deaths, hunter believed that anatomy was the foundation for all surgery, systematically questioned established practices, tested hypotheses on animals. Careful observation of patient recovery or careful examination upon death. Fixing the coachman"s problem (7-11: previously tried tying artery at point of damage which had resulted in rupture and death, conducted experiments on dogs and determined that thin artery walls were not the cause of failure. Procedure was quickly adopted and became standard practice: examination of the leg upon man"s death revealed successful operation. Chapter 2: the dead man"s arm september 1748.
