Massage (American Physiotherapy Association and Council on Physical Therapy of the AMA, 1938)

This film demonstrates the technique of massage. It shows deep and superficial stroking, kneading, and friction, and describes areas of the body and circumstances where each type is needed. It demonstrates all techniques on the patient's arm, hand, and shoulder.

First Aid for Non-Battle Injuries (US Army, 1943)

In this film, the elementary principles of first aid for soldiers in the field are presented. The emphasis is on what the soldier should do before medical help arrives. He is shown how to put everyday objects and personal items to good use in emergency situations. The film is narrated over footage of soldiers in the field.

Triplet Pregnancy: One Intrauterine, Two Extrauterine (John Irwin and Billy Burke Productions, 1961)

This film shows an operation performed on a woman pregnant with triplets at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles, California. One of the fetuses has died prior to birth. Doctors are shown scrubbing in preparation for surgery, then performing a laparotomy for delivery. Afterwards, the procedure for restoring the patient’s abdomen is shown. The stillborn fetus is examined, and a diagnosis is made of an interstitio-isthmal pregnancy.

Decompression Sickness Project (Edmund Newton Harvery, 1944)

This film shows experiments conducted during World War II on behalf of the National Research Council to better understand decompression sickness. Dr. Edmund Newton Harvey was best known for his research on bioluminescence, but he also conducted applied research in areas such as wound ballistics and aviation physiology. In these experiments, Harvey explores the phenomenon of bubble formation in blood and tissue.

Cancer Among Veterans: Early Diagnosis (U.S. Veterans Administration, 1946)

This film describes cancers of the mouth, lip, throat, neck, eye, nose, and skin in both early and advanced, severe stages. It discusses the need for early diagnosis and treatment, probable causes of such cancers, the need for research, and the modern facilities available at the Veterans Hospital in Hines, Illinois. Produced by the U.S. Veterans Administration.

The Battle to Breathe (Independent Life & Accident Insurance Co., 1968)

This film features three elderly men, Bill, a former soldier, Frank, a former construction worker, and Harry, a former farmer, all of whom now have emphysema. An interviewer visits each man to ask about his experiences with and thoughts about the disease, starting with Bill. Bill's wife laments that he has grown very weak and can now do nothing recreational except read and weave. He is a schoolteacher, but he spends almost all of his free time in bed. Bill admits that he feels judged by people in public and is embarrassed about his condition.

Emphysema (University of Washington School of Medicine, 1959)

This film begins by introducing a man named Mr. Mack. The camera follows Mr. Mack, a patient with severe emphysema, as he struggles to walk up the stairs to his doctor's office due to shortness of breath. The narrator gives a very bleak description of Mr. Mack, explaining that he has experienced many different respiratory diseases in his lifetime which have made him feel useless and embarrassed. He cannot do most simple everyday tasks, and therefore suffers depression.

Multiple Screening (Communication Materials Center, 1950)

This film promotes the concept of multiple screening. The narrator first explains that Americans in the 1800s had many health concerns, but modern medicine has alleviated many problems and life expectancy has risen. Still, blood pressure, obesity, heart and kidney problems, tuberculosis, and syphilis are persistent problems. Early detection can fix them. The narrator introduces the concept of multiple screening, in which blood and urine samples, x-rays, and other testing methods can be used to screen for several different diseases rather than just one.

Threshold (Audio Productions, 1969)

This film presents medical research and treatment in the field of anesthesiology. The application of research-based anesthesiology in surgical, respiratory, and intensive care units for the critically ill, and the diagnosis and treatment of persistent pain, are shown and addressed. Physicians discuss how much is still unknown about how anesthesia works, how they prepare patients to participate in research studies, and their inclincation to test certain approaches on themselves before using them on a patient. The challenges of pediatric surgery are mentioned.

Lung Cancer: Early Diagnosis and Management (American Cancer Society, 1969)

This program discusses the preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures indicated for lung cancer. The program notes that pre-cancerous lesions from smoking may be reversible and that periodic chest x-rays should be used as the primary diagnostic tool. Such pathologic conditions as the thickening of the bronchial epithelium basal cells with atypical nuclei are described through microscopic views. Radiographs and drawings of several clinical cases illustrate the inoperability of lesions due to their location.

Malignant Tumors of the Lungs (Assn of American Medical Colleges, 1953)

This film shows, by means of cinefluorography, the normal lungs, bronchiogenic carcinoma, carcinoma with abscess formation, metastases of seminoma, and metastases of sarcoma with bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700985A. Learn more about the National Library of Medicine's historical audiovisuals program at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/films

Surgical Correction of Dissecting Aneurysm of Ascending Aorta... (Baylor College of Medicine, 1963)

This program presents a case of a thirty year old man with Marfan's syndrome to illustrate the surgical procedure for correcting a dissecting aneurysm of the ascending aorta with aortic valvular insufficiency. The patient's preoperative physical findings and aortograms which indicate the need for this surgery are presented. In this instance the entire ascending portion of the aorta is involved. The transverse and descending aorta are not considered unusual.

Pathological Findings in the Stomach: Fluoroscopic Observations (N. Schenker and R. Janker, 1953)

Cinefluorography shows chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, and carcinoma at the lesser curvature and advanced carcinoma in the upper part of the stomach. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8701015A Learn more about the National Library of Medicine's historical audiovisuals program at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/films

Multiple Sclerosis (National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 1967)

Oriented toward the practitioner and the student, this program discusses the etiology, diagnosis, clinical courses, and management of multiple sclerosis. The program achieves its objective primarily through the use of five case studies of individuals with multiple sclerosis to show the clinical course and symptoms associated with the disorder. Three of the case studies, a twenty-three-year-old female, and a forty-three and forty-one-year-old male, represent an episodic disseminated type of multiple sclerosis.