VALUE OF SOUTHEY-LEECH TUBES IN RAPID RELIEF OF MASSIVE EDEMA

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Abstract
THE PURPOSE of this study is to recall to general attention a useful therapeutic measure in the treatment of massive edema, which, although in constant use in several large medical centers, has been all but forgotten by the medical profession as a whole. The mechanical removal of pleural and abdominal collections of fluid is a reputable procedure, universally used, but the relief of accumulations of fluid in the soft tissues by mechanical means is generally disdained. There are several reasons for the disrepute into which so valuable a measure has fallen. In the first place, newer concepts of the pathogenesis of edema in cardiac and renal disease have rightly directed attention toward correction of the altered physiologic processes by pharmacologic and dietetic means. Secondly, mechanical treatment of soft tissue edema was in the past followed now and then by alarming and even fatal cellulitis. With modern antibiotic drugs this serious
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