REPORTS OF CASES. 
415 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
“ Careful observation makes a skillful practitioner, but his skill dies with him. By 
recording his observations, he adds to the knoivledge of his profession, and assists by his 
facts in building up the solid edifice of pathological science.’’' 
LARYNGOTOMY—ARYTENECTOMY FOR ROARING IN THE 
HORSE.* 
By Dr. J. H. Blattenburg, Lima, Ohio. 
Early in February a gentleman brought to me a black geld¬ 
ing hitched to a milk wagon. The horse was twelve years old, 
weighing about looo pounds, had at one time been driven in a 
few races, but in the last two or three years had done nothing 
but slow work, owing to the condition of being a roarer, and 
so bad that in a half-mile trot to the wagon he would be com¬ 
pelled to stop and walk from dyspnoea. 
I acquainted the owner with the existing conditions; also 
the successful and unsucccessful results of an operation (from 
the varied experiences of those who had been performing the 
operation of removing the arytenoid cartilage), and said that, 
providing he was willing to take the chances of unfavorable 
results, I would operate upon the horse. 
On February i6 the horse was returned for operation. I 
proceeded by clipping the hair around where I desired to oper¬ 
ate, covering the larynx and trachea; then hobbled, cast, and 
secured him ; administered anaesthetic of A-C-E mixture. 
When fully anaesthetized placed animal as near as possible upon 
his back, cleansing space antiseptically, then making an inci¬ 
sion through skin and muscles in median line from thyroid 
cartilage to fourth ring of trachea, with little haemorrhage save 
a couple of small arterial branches. The second incision was 
through the first four rings of the trachea, crico-tracheal liga¬ 
ment, cricoid cartilage, and crico-thyroidean ligament to body of 
thyroid cartilage, care being taken not to injure the vocal cords. 
Not being in possession of a tampon canula, I substituted an 
ordinary trachea tube, placed it in the trachea and packed 
around it inside the trachea with gauze, holding tube in posi¬ 
tion with string tied around the neck. 
In viewing the inside of the larynx, it was easy to deter¬ 
mine which of the arytenoids was affected ; the left one did 
not move at all, while the right one moved freely by the ac- 
* Read before the joint meeting of the Ohio and Michigan Veterinary Medical Asso¬ 
ciations at Toledo, Ohio, July ii and 12 , i8g8. 
