Pott's Disease; Its Pathology and Mechanical Treatment, with Remarks on Rotary Lateral Curvature (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. 1879. Excerpt: ... conceivable head-rest, we cannot, even then, secure the vertebral column satisfactorily. The plaster jacket, in this region, as I have already pointed out, is inoperative, and the ungainly "jury mast,"--which I saw used in the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled, as long ago as 1863--exerts no competent force. Taylor's chin piece, acting as a long, superior arm of the lever, affords the best medium, in my own experience, of securing efficient support;--not by extending the spine, as some have thought; nor yet by acting as a, strictly speaking, anteroposterior support, as has been advanced by others. Recession of the inferior maxillary occurs if it be used continuously on the latter principle. It has answered best, in my hands, as a simple, but firm and unirritating head rest, limiting the anterior flexion of the head and spine, and removing the greater part of the weight from the vertebral column. In the third region (the cervical) the mechanical elements again become much easier of adaptation, and some of the best results I have ever witnessed in Pott's disease have been obtained in this region by the use of the chin piece surmounting the two lateral uprights of the antero-posterior support. The objection to the use of a plaster base, simply for the purpose of mounting a "jury mast " upon it, must be evident to any one, when some simple support laced to the body, such as Knight's apparatus, would answer the same purpose and allow also of frequent ablutions. But as it has proved inoperative in my own hands, and as it is not only ugly in appearance, but inflicts unnecessary pain and humiliation upon the patient, I have discarded it. In the treatment, of Pott's disease in the first region, I have found a modification of Taylor's antero-posterior support, ...