Ligature (surgery)
In surgery, a ligature (from the Latin ligatura 'band', 'bandage', 'bundle') or ligation is the closing of a hollow organ , for example a blood vessel , by tying it with a surgical thread . In special situations, the tissue is also pierced with a needle during a ligature to prevent it from slipping (sharp ligature).
The term ligature was coined by the French surgeon Ambroise Paré , who is regarded as a pioneer in modern vascular surgery. Although the method had already been described two centuries earlier and was also recommended in the pharmacopoeia of the Würzburg surgeon Ortolf von Baierland around 1280, it is thanks to Paré that it was reintroduced as the preferred method for vascular injuries in the mid-16th century. This method was used to close blood vessels after amputation of one or more extremities and thus prevent the patient from bleeding to death.
Special forms of ligature are used, for example, to treat haemorrhoid complaints or as an emergency measure in the case of life-threatening bleeding from esophageal varices ( rubber band ligation ). Another application is the ligation of no longer required vessels after circulatory modifications such as the Glenn anastomosis .
The advantage of the ligature over the electrocautery is the reliability that the vessel is safely closed mechanically. Vessels coagulated / cauterized with the cautery , on the other hand, can leak from the fire damage in the neighboring zone and start to bleed again.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Kern : Seeing - Thinking - Acting of a surgeon in the 20th century. ecomed, Landsberg am Lech 2000, ISBN 3-609-20149-5 , p. 190.
- ^ Steven G. Friedman: A History of Vascular Surgery . John Wiley & Sons, 2nd edition 2008, ISBN 9781405171298 , p. 10.
- ↑ a b Franka Böck and Thomas Riedel: Blood is a very special juice: blood & circulatory system from antiquity to modernity . epubli, 2013, ISBN 9783844261844 , p. 54.
