Atlas and epitome of traumatic fractures and dislocations / by H. Helferich ; auth. tr. from the German, ed. by Joseph C. Bloodgood.

  • Helferich, H. (Heinrich), 1851-1945.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Atlas and epitome of traumatic fractures and dislocations / by H. Helferich ; auth. tr. from the German, ed. by Joseph C. Bloodgood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    also to be borne iu mind that a fracture at the site of a medullary sarcoma may unite (Koenig). Personally I have never observed this to take place. Fractures in healed cases of osteomyelitis are not un- usual. In such instances the bone is weakened by the great increase of librous tissue, a condition called ostitis fibrosa (von Recklinghausen). Instead of a fracture there may be a bending of the bone. With proper treatment we may, however, expect firm union, although it is usually delayed, and for this reason the fracture dressing should be maintained for a longer period. The relation of contusion of the bone as an etiologic factor in pyogenic and tubercular osteomyelitis and prim- ary sarcoma is a very interesting one. Observation has demonstrated that these diseases very rarely follow a com- plete fracture, but are frequently associated with contusion of the bone with or without splintering. For this reason if the induration and swelling following a trauma of the bone do not disappear in the usual time, we should be suspicious of the onset of one of these diseases, and insti- tute an early investigation.—Ed.] Fractures are divided into compound [open] and simple or subcutaneous fractures. A compound fracture is one in which there is a simultaneous injury of the skin and soft parts at the seat of fracture. As a rule, this involves ex- posure of the seat of fracture to the air and to infection reaching it from without; but even when the injury to the skin and soft parts is slight and does not communicate with the fractured bone, it is still spoken of as a com- pound fracture. In the treatment of such cases the strictest antisepsis or asepsis is to be observed in accord- ance with the acce])ted principles of surgery ; this offers the only prospect of a favorable course in compound frac- tures, which were formerly considered so dangerous. In other respects the treatment does not differ from that of simple fractures, having for its aim the firm union of the fractured bone with the least possible amount of displace-