Surgical essays.

  • Cooper, Astley, Sir, 1768-1841.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical essays. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Jies applied to an hospital patient, in a case of a fracture of the neck of the thigh-bone, which had been mistaken for a dislocation, and the patient cruelly exposed through the surgeon’s ignorance, to a violent and protracted exten- sion. It is therefore proper, that the form of the ends of the bones, their mode of articulation, the ligaments by which they are connected, and the direction in which the larger muscles act, - should be well understood. The immediate effect of dislocation is to alter Symptoms, the form of the joint, often to produce a change in the length of the limb, and to occasion the almost entire loss of motion of the part, after the muscles have had time to contract. In the first moments of the accident, considerable mo- tion remains; for I have seen_Jk-J3oa3a-^brc^^ . into Guy’s HospitaU-JvJrcr^ew minutes before had the thigii^bon^ dislocated into the foramen ovale, and I was surprised to find, in a case otherwise so well marked, that a great mobility of the bone still existed at the^ dislocated part; but in less than three hours, it became firmly fixed in its new situation, by the contraction of the muscles. Blood is often effused in considerable quantity around the joint, and prevents an easy detection of the accident, the swelling being sometimes so considerable as to conceal entirely the ends of the bones. A severe but obtuse pain arises from the pres- sure of the head of the bone upon the muscles, and sometimes the pain is more acute from its pressure upon a large nerve. From this cause