The Transactions of the New York Academy of Medicine (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF RACHITIC DEFORMITIES OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. By V. P. GIBNEY, M.D., PROFESSOR OF ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY IN THE NEW YORK POLYCLINIC. It is my impression that the subject of Osteotomy for genu-valgum and genu-varum has not been discussed in any of the New York societies except the Surgical. Certainly the Academy of Medicine has not contributed anything to science bearing upon the question, and I therefore ask no pardon for presenting this evening a paper on the Surgical Management of Rachitic Deformities of the Lower Extremities. If my paper shall serve to bring out a discussion among men whose experience is large and valuable, if some, as yet, mooted points can be settled within this hall so far as the weight of statistics and opinion can settle any point, if aught can be added, however small, to our stock of information on the subject of bow-legs, of knock-knee, and of other curves of the lower extremities, I shall feel that I have not written in vain. By way of definition let me state that in the employment of the terms Surgical Management I wish to convey the impression that mechanical appliances as well as cutting instruments, are surgical means for effecting relief. He who devises and applies apparatus to meet indications, may be just as much a surgeon as he who wields the scalpel, theosteotome and the mallet. It requires as much skill, ay, more skill, to make a simple fracture always at the epiphys- ial line, than to make a compound fracture at this point. If then I speak of braces, splints and osteoclasts, do not think that I am digressing. All these belong to the armamentarium of the surgeon. For the reason that a large proportion of bone curves and epiphysial changes in the lower extremities are found in children who have been ...