The
patient speedily recovered, and was discharged in a little over a
month, the only disastrous result of his extraordinary injuries
being a small ventral hernia.
In wounds of the diaphragm, particularly those from stabs and
gunshot injuries, death is generally due to accompanying lesions
rather than to injury. Hollerius, and Alexander Benedictus, made
a favorable diagnosis of wounds made in the fleshy portions of
the diaphragm, but despaired of those in the tendinous portions.
Bertrand, Fabricius Hildanus, la Motte, Ravaton, Valentini, and
Glandorp, record instances of recovery from wounds of the
diaphragm.
There are some peculiar causes of diaphragmatic injuries on
record, laughter, prolonged vomiting, excessive eating, etc.,
being mentioned. On the other hand, in his "Essay on Laughter (du
Ris)," Joubert quotes a case in which involuntary laughter was
caused by a wound of the diaphragm; the laughter mentioned in
this instance was probably caused by convulsive movements of the
diaphragm, due to some unknown irritation of the phrenic nerve.
Bremuse gives an account of a man who literally split his
diaphragm in two by the ingestion of four plates of potato soup,
numerous cups of tea and milk, followed by a large dose of sodium
bicarbonate to aid digestion.
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