"TRENCH FOOT"
METHODS OP PEEVENTION,
Dr. C. Nepean Lohgridge, Lieutenant, Royal Army Medical Corps, in the course of an article in the "Lancet" on the cause and prevention of trench foot, "The experience of officers' at the front is that trench foot can bo prevented. I am certain it can, but it can only be done, firstly, by keeping out tbe wet, and, secondly, by keeping up the electrical resistance of the skin of the feet. The feet Bhould be thoroughly greased, and by far. the best grease to use is the dielectric ointment which is now an article of commerce. It is interesting to note that our French colleagues are suggesting the use of am' Brine for trench feet; they have had very good results with it in burns, but it isnscd empirically without appreciation of its dielectric action. I doubt if anything could improve on the results obtained by dielectric oil in cases of burns. . . .The disadvantage of rubber boots is that owing to the excessive perspiration they cause the skin of the feet is,liable to become 6oddeu • and 'so lose its electrical resistance. Soaking the boots,-socks, and puttees in oil is the alternative I suggest for rubber boots. Any thick oil would do as a' preventive; kitchen fat rendered with olive oil or cotton-seed oil might b* tried, but I think that the skin of the feet should be rubbed with a dielectric grease. -'If signs of trench foot should develop in cases where these precautions have not been efficiently carried out, the best treatment is to wrap the foot and the whole of the lower part of the limb as far as the knee-joint in gamgee tissue soaked in. dielectric oil. Irhave seen enough of this treatment to justify the assertion that no.serious case of trench foot necessitating amputation need take place." ,
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3041, 30 March 1917, Page 6
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306"TRENCH FOOT" Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3041, 30 March 1917, Page 6
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