Sponge-pumping
Categories:
INSTRUMENTARIUM
Sources:
A Manual Of Peroral Endoscopy And Laryngeal Surgery
While the usually thin, watery esophageal and
gastric secretions, if free from food, are readily aspirated through a
drainage canal, the secretions of the bronchi are often thick and
mucilaginous and aspirated with difficulty. Further-more, bronchial
secretions as a rule are not collected in pools, but are distributed
over the walls of the larger bronchi and continuously well up from
smaller bronchi during cough. The a
pirating bronchoscopes should be
used whenever their very slight additional area of cross-section is
unobjectionable. In most cases, however, the most advantageous way to
remove bronchial secretion has been found to be by introducing a gauze
swab on a long sponge carrier (Fig. 14), so that the sponge extends
beyond the distal end of the bronchoscope, causing cough. Then
withdrawal of the sponge carrier will remove all of the secretion in
the tube just as the plunger in a pump will lift all of the water
above it. By this maneuver the walls of the bronchus are wiped free
from secretions, and the lamp itself is cleansed.
[FIG. 14.--Sponge carrier with long collar for carrying the small
sponges shown in Fig. 15. The collar screws down as in the Coolidge
cotton carrier. About a dozen of these are needed and they should all
be small enough to go through the 4 mm. (diameter) bronchoscope and
long enough to reach through the 53 cm. (length) esophagoscope, so
that one set will do for all tubes. The schema shows method of
sponging. The carrier C, armed with the sponge, S, when rotated as
shown by the dart, D, wipes the field, P, at the same time wiping the
lamp, L. The lamp does not need ever to be withdrawn for cleaning
during bronchoscopy. It is protected in a recess so that it does not
catch in the sponges.]
[FIG 15.--Exact size to which the bandage-gauze is cut to make
endoscopic sponges. Each rectangle is the size for the tubal diameter
given. The dimensions of the respective rectangles are not given
because it is easier for the nurse or any one to cut a cardboard
pattern of each size directly from this drawing. The gauze rectangles
are folded up endwise as shown at A, then once in the middle as at B,
then strung one dozen on a safety pin. In America gauze bandages run
about 16 threads to the centimeter. Different material might require a
slightly different size and the pattern could be made to suit.]
[32] The gauze sponges are made by the instrument nurse as directed in
Fig. 15, and are strung on safety pins, wrapped in paper, the size
indicated by a figure on the wrapper, and then sterilized in an
autoclave. The sterile packages are opened only as needed. These
bronchoscopic sponges are also made by Johnston and Johnston, of New
Brunswick, N. J. and are sold in the shops.