Experience with refrigeration anesthesia: Six supracondylar amputations for arteriosclerotic gangrene

Abstract

Of the six cases mentioned in Table 1 there were five men and one woman. The ages ranged from sixty-two to eighty-three, with an average age of 73.5 years. Of the six amputations three were performed on the right thigh and three on the left. One of the six had diabetes mellitus. It is interesting to note that the patient, Case IV, on whom a left-sided amputation was done, had had a right supracondylar amputation for the same condition before coming to this hospital. It is also interesting that M. B., Case 1, entered the Trenton State Hospital on June 17, 1881, at the age of seventeen and had been in various state hospitals of New Jersey continuously almost for sixty-four years when she finally died. Prior to the introduction of refrigeration anesthesia the operative mortality for this type of operation at the New York City Hospital ranged from 55 to 80 per cent, deaths being due chiefly to shock, infection and embolism. In this series the operative mortality was zero. All of the patients made normal, uneventful convalescences. The last two patients were still living, approximately four months and one month postoperatively.