I was listening to an interview on the radio last night as I drove home from work. The guy was some expert in the history of leeches in medicine.
So back in the days of bloodletting, leeches were a popular choice. They produced visible improvement of inflammation and were thus used anywhere there was swelling. His specific example was tonsils.
My throat is reflexively closing off .
Although effective at reducing the size of swollen tonsils, the leeches were problematic because once they had gorged themselves they would simply drop off, causing the patient to either (a) swallow them whole, or (b) choke and die as the fat leech occluded the airway.
The solution was to "pass a silk thread through one end of the leech" so that it could be pulled out once it was done feeding.
And I thought the prior post was gross...
ReplyDeleteOh my sick. You are such a nurse! I can just hear a chorus of other nurses saying, "Oh you think that's gross..." :) Why are you learning this stuff? The silk thread thing made me throw up in my mouth just a little bit...
ReplyDeleteWhy couldn't they just hang their heads down and let the leeches fall out of their mouths, rather than down the throat?
ReplyDeleteWho knows?? Why would anyone even allow a leech to be placed on their tonsils?
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