492 VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



the tube is extracted and the tract allowed to close, and the 

 cutaneous sutures removed. Fever and general malaise that 

 is certain to ensue is treated medicinally according to the in- 

 dications presented; 



Punctured Wounds of the Thorax. 



These wounds should at once be divided into (i) pene- 

 trant wounds and (2) non-penetrant wounds. The former 

 enter the thoracic cavity with or without injuring the vis- 

 cera, while the latter only invade the structures constituting 

 the chest wall. 



They are Usually located on the anterior face of the pec- 

 toralregion^and are sustained in a large percentage of in- 

 sfancesin collisions with vehicles, the shafts of which perfor- 

 ate the body by the force of the clash. The puncture may be 

 shallow when the force is slight, or when the object is ar- 

 rested by the sternum. If located high -it may at once per- 

 forate the thorax along the course of the trachea, sometimes 

 wounding large vessels, or even the heart, and cause death 

 in a. few moments. The usual course, however, is between 

 the shoulder and the costal surface, after glancing off of the 

 keel-like sternum. In this space the puncture may reach 

 the depth of six inches, one foot, twO feet or even more. 

 The posterior end of the tract is often located just within the 

 olecranon. A case was reported at the 1907 meeting of the 

 Illinois Veterinary Medical Association in which the object, 

 — a fence board, — perforated the pectoral muscles, passed 

 between the shoulder and ribs and then followed backward 

 subcutanepusly as far as the stifle. 



lhese wounds may be complicated by fracture of the 

 sternum, fracture of one or more ribs, tearing loose of the 

 costal cartilages, and sometimes by the foreign bodies — a 

 part of the object having broken off within the tract. 



Inter-costal penetrations are rather rare in animals be- 

 cause the overlapping arrangement of the ribs causes ob- 

 jects to glance off instead of perforating the thorax. A 

 glancing clash against a pointed object may, however, tear 

 a rent through the cartilages of the false ribs and enter the 

 abdominal cavity, causing breach of the thorax, diaphragm 

 and abdomen. The author ha§ observed several such 

 wounds in horses, and White refers to their frequency in 

 dogs. Direct inter-costal perforations of the thorax are, 

 however, sometimes sustained by horn-thrusts, malicious 

 blows with tools and by kicks from shaip-shod hoofs. 



