Three cases of acute anterior polio-myelitis (acute spinal paralysis) in adults / by W. Allen Sturge.

  • Sturge, William Allen, 1850-1919.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three cases of acute anterior polio-myelitis (acute spinal paralysis) in adults / by W. Allen Sturge. 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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    side, amoanting, as compared with that of the left, to six divisions in the bar. There was also a marked diminution in reaction to the con- stant current. The right rhomboidei muscles were also somewhat wasted, and their irritability to the induced current was very distinctly less than on the left side, the difference amounting to two degrees on the bar. The latissimus dorsi and the pectoral muscles were not affected in any way. There was apparently nothing now amiss with the legs. The patient was ordered to have voltaic electricity applied over the affected muscles (labile current), and under its influence there was con- siderable improvement. The biceps was too far gone for recovery, and there was no change in the serratus magnus or the rhomboidei. He became, however, so much stronger in the arm, after three or four months’ treatment, that he was able to resume his work. C.'VSE It.—E. W., a young woman aged 20, single, living in the country under good conditions, had always had good general health before the present illness. There was no suspicion of syphilis, and no neurotic history in the family. The present illness came on in Septem- ber 1S76. She had been in good health, when one evening, without any history of e.xposure to cold or other exciting causes, she felt as t’lougli she had “cricked’ her neck ; there vvas a liitle pain in the back of the neck, and the m.'ck was very stiff. .She felt the same pain and stifl'ness on getting up next morning, and in the course of the day a bad headache came on with a feeling of sickness. That evening the left hand s’look a good deal when she was using it. The foll(twing night, she woke up and found that the left arm was entirely powerless. .She felt weak and poorly in herself, but there was no pain or any affection of sensation in the arm or hand. She felt ill for four days, when severe sickness canre on, and she vomiied repeatedly for a whole week. At the end of this time, her general health improved considerably, but the left arm continued quite powerless, and she had at times pain across the shoulders which she compared to rheumatic pains. There was at no time any sensation of tightness round the neck or chest. From the first onset of the weakness, all the muscles of the affected arm were quite flaccid. Three or four weeks after the commencement of the illness, the patient herself noticed that the muscles about the shoulder were wasting ; and shortly afterwards the muscles of the arm and hand were likewise found to be markedly smaller than on the healthy side. At the end of three months, the wasting was very great. At that time, she was prescribed a course of arsenic, and considerably improved under the tre.atment. .She was admitted into the National Hospital for Para- lysis and Epilepsy in February 1878, under the care of Dr. Radcliffe, to whom I am indebted for permission to publish the case. .\t the time of her admission, there vvas very marked w.asting of all the muscles of the left arm ; the deltoid was almost absent, the shoulder being fl.attencd, and the point sharp. The arm round the middle of the biceps measured only eight inches and a quarter in circumference ; the right arm measuring nine inches and five-eighths. The power in the