440 



VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



charge at the nose for several months, at which time all 

 trace of the subsequent progress was lost. So far as the 

 author has been able to determine the operation has never 

 since been performed except for experimental purposes upon 

 horses not affected with any condition requiring its per- 

 formance, hyo-vertebrotomy being apparently more popular 

 when needed, on account ofits relative simplicity. 



The operation must be preceded by intubation of the 

 trachea with a tracheotomy tube, to prevent suffocation from 

 the hand while it sojourns in the pharynx, and from the con- 

 tents of the pouch which discharge into the pharynx when 

 the incision is made. 



The lateral recumbent position with the muzzle turned 

 upward is the operative position required. General anaesthe- 

 sia is also demanded to provide against movements of the 

 head at the critical moments. 



Fig. 225 — Method of Introducing Knife into the Pharynx in Staphylotomy. 



The mouth is opened as wide as possible with a ratchet 

 mouth speculum. The hand, armed with a special knife con- 

 sisting of a short, hook-shaped blade and a flat ferrule that 

 fits ring-like on the tip of the index finger, is forced, cone 

 shaped, through the fauces, until the blade can be hooked 

 over the posterior border of the velum, when it is drawn 

 slowly forward, incising the velum from behind forward until 

 its course is arrested by contact of the knife against the 

 palatine bone. 



Without removing the hand the pouch is incised obliquely 

 from above downward and forward, by an incision about one 

 inch long, which, if deemed necessary, may be enlarged by 

 forcing the fingers into it. Vessels are thus pushed aside 

 instead of being severed with the knife. 



The hand is now withdrawn to lay aside the knife and 

 then re-introduced to bring out the contents handful by hand- 

 ful. If the larynx has been filled by the discharges, these 



