Transactions of the American Orthopedic Association (Volume 10) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897. Excerpt: ... EXCISION OF THE HIP. By WISNEE R. TOWNSEND, M.D., NEW YORK. To determine the exact value of any particular method of treatment in chronic disease of the hip joint is a difficult matter. Each case varies, and the statistics and the conclusions drawn from a series of eases are often misleading. I will not attempt to gather together a vast number of figures, therefore, or to quote from other authorities, but simply report the results of the operation of excision in the patients on whom it has been performed from 1886 to 1896, inclusive, in the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled, New York. This work has been made possible for me by the kind assistance of Dr. W. J. Reynolds, late house surgeon of the hospital, who made an abstract of the histories as given in the recordbooks of the institution, to which has been added the final results in all cases, when these could be traced. Personally, I have had the oppotunity of witnessing all but two or three of the operations, and of making the final notes. Following the plan of most American surgeons, the large majority of patients with hip disease at this hospital have been treated by means of the various forms of hip-splints in common use to-day. An endeavor is made to treat each case strictly on its merits, and the treatment is by no means a matter of mere routine. The patients first make application to the out-patient department, and, if the disease is just beginning, a plaster-of-Paris spica bandage is applied, which, in mild cases, is kept on until a splint is made ready, or, if the child needs hospital care, until it is admitted to the wards. If the symptoms are acute, the child is put to bed and a weight and pulley applied, with the object of overcoming the spasm and the deformity. When much deformity exists, h...