Clinical notes on nerve disorders in surgical practice / by George Wherry.

  • Wherry, George, 1852-1928.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical notes on nerve disorders in surgical practice / by George Wherry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to recover from a broken neck, and I have therefore taken some pains to give here a photograph of a living patient, with an account of the post-mortem appearances in the spinal column. With modern methods of immobilisation even more successful results may appear in the future, and surer indications may be obtained for trephining and operative treatment, inasmuch as hoema- tomyelia and such lesions are now capable of being recognised Cystitis is now better looked after, and I once witnessed an extraordinary improvement after a perineal section, in a man apparently dying from cystitis due to fractured cervical spine. In one of the two cases there was fracture of the upper lumbar vertebrae with paralysis of the legs, and in the other there was fracture of the cervical vertebrae, with paralysis of both arms. Death occurring twelve years later from other causes, a jwsi-mortem examination was obtained. The condition of the spinal column is described below. Case XI.—Charles C , aged 60, on October 29, 1873, fell fifty-seven feet from a scaffold ; at twenty-eight feet a plank checked his fall, and lower down he alighted on the ridge-root of an office. He lay nineteen weeks in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, with paraplegia and sores on his back. A catheter was used for two years, he recovered power in his bladder by degrees, and from his invalid-chair began to walk with crutches, and could go 100 yards pretty well. He has now, thirteen years after the accident, enjoyed fair health, but his legs lately have been swollen and ulcerated. His hands are suffering from what may be “ crutch ” palsy. Urine is retained ordinarily, but any beer or tea beyond a veiy moderate quantity is followed by incon- tinence. Case XII.—Peter H in 1874 was standing on the top of a load of tares, hauling at a rope which he thought was fastened down below, when he fell backwards on to the ground. He was in the hospital about a year, and had paralysis of the bladder during seven or eight days only ; no paralysis of the lower limbs. There were large sloughs on the scapula, but no bed-sores else- where. In carrying him to bed crepitus was felt. His breathing was entirely diaphragmatic. When he had been in bed about a year he began to gain flesh and strength, and sat up in a chair, and later on walked about, carrying his head erect and hrs neck