Interesting History Of The Stethoscope

The instrument we know as the stethoscope allows a person to hear sounds produced by the body and organs

. The original stethoscope, invented by a French physician named Rene Laennec in 1816, was nothing more than a short wooden tube that had a broad bell shaped flange at one end that would be placed on the patient.

When this opening was placed against the chest of the patient, the physician, by placing his ear against the opposite opening, could hear the sounds of breathing and of heart action. The stethoscope changed little until the beginning of the 20th cent. when the binaural instrument was developed by G. P. Cammann, a New York physician.

It consisted of two earpieces with flexible rubber tubing connecting them to the two-branched metal chest cone. Thus the sounds could be heard with both ears, and the instrument's flexibility permitted the physician to listen to various areas without changing his position.

Electronic stethoscopes make it possible for several clinicians to listen at the same time to the sounds emitted by a particular organ.

Listening with the stethoscope, also known as auscultation, used in conjunction with tapping on the chest is a fundamental means of diagnosis in modern medicine. The different ways sound is reflected back after tapping over an organ can tell the clinician about possible abnormalities of that organ.

Many diseases of the heart and lungs, and sometimes of the stomach, blood vessels, and intestines, can be recognized early by skillful use of the stethoscope.

Solvents can accelerate the dissolving of the plasticizers that keep these parts flexible and looking new. Always use regular soap to clean this instrument.

In addition, when they are manufactured stethoscopes with two-sided chest pieces are lubricated where the chest piece rotates around the stem and need to be re-lubricated periodically, just like any other machine. If these moving parts are not lubricated, they grind together and ruin the fine tolerances required for the proper acoustic performance of the stethoscope.

Properly cleaning your stethoscope will also remove lubrication making occasional lubrication a must. Also remember most lubricants should be kept off of rubber and vinyl parts.

by: Joe Eagen.

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