Surgery

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. The pathological process in chronio inflammation is essentially the same as in the acute; but the dilated vessels appear to lose their tone, and remain dilated for longer periods, and the escape of leucocytes is continuous. Further it appears possible that the inflammatory exudation,...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. The pathological process in chronio inflammation is essentially the same as in the acute; but the dilated vessels appear to lose their tone, and remain dilated for longer periods, and the escape of leucocytes is continuous. Further it appears possible that the inflammatory exudation, which contains less fibrin-forming material and albumen, isformed in part by the original tissue cells as well as by escaped leucocytes. Like the acute it may terminate in resolution, suppuration and ulceration, but it is much more liable to produce chronic thickening of the tissues, from the accumulation in them of the cellular elements, or terminate in caseation or even calcification. The causes of chronic inflammation are similar to those of the acute, but they appear to act with less intensity and for longer periods. Amongst the predisposing causes must be especially mentioned passive congestion, struma, rheumatism, gout and syphilis. The exciting causes are often very slight, and may be altogether overlooked; whilst secondary causes which may keep up the inflammation for an almost indefinite time frequently come into play. Thus in chronic joint-disease, though the cause may be but a trivial injury in a rheumatic subject, continual movement and tension due to the distension of the synovial membrane may keep up the inflammation for months or years. The presence of miliary tubercle is a frequent cause. Symptoms?These are also local and constitutional. Of the local signs the redness may be absent, or, if present, of a dusky hue; whilst the part is often discoloured from pigmentation due to the disintegration of the coloured corpuscles. The pain is less severe than in the acute, often of a dull aching character and increased on pressure and sometimes worse at night. The p..