Surgical Shock


Dr. Dewey discusses the homeopathy treatment of Surgical Shock in his bestselling book Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics….


Veratrum album [Verat]

      Pictures a typical case of surgical shock, the sudden prostration, a sudden change coming over the patient. Cold sweat, body cold, especially extremities, pallor, features distorted, relaxation complete; also some tetanic spasms. The breathing is shallow, almost imperceptible, yet there is a physical restlessness. It is a remedy employed by our best surgeons. Dr. Mitchell, of Chicago, said of it that it stimulates the heart quite as promptly as a hypodermic of strychnia. It must not be given too low; it is dangerous to use it in these conditions lower than the 3X.

Camphora. [Camph]

      Like **Veratrum this remedy produces sudden prostration, coldness and feeble pulse, the surface is cold and clammy, but there is a tendency to a cyanosed condition or blueness of the skin and lips. The shock seems even more profound than that of **Veratrum, the breath is cold, the pulse rapid, tongue and lips tremble and the patient seems on the brink of dissolution. Respiration is slow and sighing. The countenance is hippocratic, the tip of the nose and cheek bones are cold. There is burning internally after operation and the blood pressure low **Camphora Ix is well indicated. It precedes **Veratrum album.

**Arsenicum has burning and would suit well the erythistic type of shock with its anguish and restlessness.

**Digitalis. Slow, irregular, weak pulse, patient bluish- pale, sinking at epigastrium.

Carbo vegetabilis [Carb-v]

      Is suitable to collapsed conditions of the most intense and desperate character. A stupor is produced hardly yielding to stimulants. It is even more of a cyanotic condition than that of **Camphora. The circulation seems to be arrested and stagnant, the pulse is scarcely perceptible and the breathing is rattling. It is all the more indicated when the shock results from the loss of blood or in debilitated patients where depletion causes the causes the shock rather than a nervous condition.

**Cinchona is similar in this latter condition, but there is some nervous agitation with this remedy and an anxious manner.

**Arnica. Traumatic shock, nausea, pains, pulse slow and weak, and patient in a stupor or unconscious.

Opium. [Op]

      Here we have almost complete insensibility, patient relapses into a stupor, blue, livid face, loud breathing, slowing cerebral pressure; the pulse, the respiration and the coldness will distinguish **Camphora here.

**Hypericum where the shock is due to pain, especially to injuries of parts rich in nerves.

W.A. Dewey
Dewey, Willis A. (Willis Alonzo), 1858-1938.
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.