REGIONAL- VETERINARY SURGERY 

 AND OPERATIVE TECHNIQUE. 



I.— GENERAL REMARKS ON OPERATIONS. 



The word operation covers all mechanical interference under- 

 taken for surgical purposes. Perfect restoration of function being 

 usually demanded in veterinary surgery, many operations common 

 in human practice must either be renounced or very seldom 

 performed, partial recovery being worse than useless from the owner's 

 standpoint. It is therefore often necessary to consider whether 

 operation is justified or whether slaughter be not preferable. Owners 

 as a class have quite erroneous impressions of the results to be 

 expected. Many are not satisfied even when the animal's usefulness 

 is completely restored because perhaps a trifling blemish remains. 

 Some seem incapable of understanding that a certain time is necessary 

 for recovery. They imagine that healing can be forced, become 

 impatient, and in a few moments destroy by clumsy interference, 

 or too early use of the animal, the results of weeks of skill, after- 

 wards seeking to hold the operator answerable. In veterinary 

 surgery the conditions for rapid healing are much less favourable 

 than in human practice. 



The unsatisfactory sanitary surroundings, the active opposition 

 of the animal, and frequently the impossibility of shielding the 

 wound from injurious external influences, as in human surgery, often 

 render success imperfect even with the greatest care and attention 

 to detail. 



Division. Operations are divided according to varying circum- 

 stances. Those requiring the use of the hands alone are sometimes 

 known as manual operations ; the terms dressing and instrumental 

 operations explain themselves. We speak also of elementary or 

 compound, bloodless or sanguinary, regular or irregular ; of urgent 



