The United States Medical and Surgical Journal (Volume 7); A Quarterly Magazine of the Homaopathic Practice of Medicine and Medical Science in General. . Volume I-IX, 1865-74 (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. 1872. Excerpt: ... finger placed over the seat of the injury shows considerable mobility of the points of the fracture, while the middle seems well united. Various methods have been used for the relief of similar cases, all having in view the same end, viz.: establishing an inflammatory process about the ununited portions of the fracture by which osseous growth is produced, rendering the union perfect. In cases of this nature we deem acupuncture the best operation for the benefit of our patient, and using the ether spray as a local anaesthetic shall insert these needles as deeply as possible between the ununited fragments. The limb will now be bandaged and we shall await the result. Non-union Of Fracture Of Leg.--Case XLV. Mrs. B, aged 49, sustained five years ago a fracture of the tibia in its lower third. The case as it now comes to us is one of ligamentous union, that portion of the limb below the seat of the fracture being exceedingly mobile, and the limb of no use to the patient unless supported by apparatus devised for the purpose. The condition of this leg is an excellent illustration of the results of carelessness, to say the least, in the early treatment of these cases. Our patient states that the limb was placed in a splint which allowed free motion to the foot and lower third of the leg, the foot being perfectly loose, and by its own weight keeping the fractured ends apart and thus defeating the process of union. The limb was afterwards tightly bandaged, and so kept until its present atrophied state was produced. In this case two operations have been performed, but no satisfactory result obtained. We shall try, by operating to-day, to destroy the ligamentous union which at present obtains, and reduce the injury as far as possible to the state of a recent fracture...