] 94 
TRACHEOTOMY. 
in complete solution, or if they contain fatty oils or irritants. Should 
the animal cough during the administration of fluids, the process should 
be stopped. Rubbing the neck is not only useless, but also dangerous, 
as coughing is thus easily induced. In operations, during the course of 
which blood may find entrance into the air tubes, a tampon-canula (fig. 
81) should be used, or the operation performed with the head pendent 
—a procedure which has, however, the disadvantage of allowing the 
animal to move. 
Large, firm objects can usually be removed from the air passages 
only after tracheotomy. Removal is sometimes possible with the help 
of suitable forceps. If necessary, the fissure in the trachea can be 
lengthened, when the body may be forced out by the pressure of the 
expiratory current. Tumours can sometimes be removed in a similar 
fashion. 
(5.) TRACHEOTOMY. 
Where obstacles to the passage of air exist in the upper air-tract (nose, 
larynx, or upper portion of the trachea), a direct entrance to the lungs 
may be provided by opening the trachea. This operation (tracheotomy), 
formerly wrongly termed bronchotomy, has been carried out in man 
from the earliest times (Asclepiades) ; has, however, repeatedly fallen 
into disuse, and has recently again come into fashion in men and 
animals. Viborg especially, showed its simple character. Tracheotomy 
consists in surgical opening of the trachea, in which is generally placed 
a tube or canula permitting passage of air. The operation is adopted 
for the following purposes :— 
(1) To ward off suffocation resulting from swellings in the Schneiderian 
membrane, in the larynx, or from other obstacles in the upper air 
passages, 
(2) To restore to usefulness animals suffering from chronic dyspnoea 
produced by stenosis of the air passages. To this category belong 
horses suffering from hemiplegia laryngis. 
(3) To remove foreign bodies from the trachea, and prevent the 
entrance into it of blood or inflammatory products. 
(4) More rarely to carry out direct treatment of the larynx and mucous 
membrane of the trachea. 
Tracheotomy is almost invariably restricted to horses, in which 
animals impaired respiration is commonest, and interferes most seriously 
with usefulness. In ruminants diseases of the larynx are rarer, and 
when the} 7 occur the animals are generally slaughtered. Owing to the 
comparatively long neck, and exposed position of the trachea, the opera¬ 
tion offers less difficulty in horses than in cattle, where the trachea is 
covered by the dewlap. The isthmus of the thyroid glands in the horse 
