Series of twelve bone and joint cases : illustrating recent improvement in the mechanical surgery of the lower limb / by Rushton Parker.

  • Parker, Rushton, 1847-1932.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Series of twelve bone and joint cases : illustrating recent improvement in the mechanical surgery of the lower limb / by Rushton Parker. 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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    [Medical Times and Gazette, June 30, 1S8?.] SERIES OF BONE AND JOINT CASES. (Under the care of Mr. RUSHTON PARKER.) / Case 1.— Caries of the Patella, suppurating and resembling Bursitis—Crucial Incision of Knee-joint—Entire Healing and Recovery of all Movements, but without Bony Patella — Caries and Curvature of Spine, supported by a Dorsal Splint. Eliza Anne G., aged five, first attended at the Eoyal Infirmary on February 25, 1878. She had for three or four weeks previously been under Mr. Parker’s care at the Stanley Hospital, as an out-patient, on account of a sub- cutaneous pre-patellar suppuration, of six months’ duration, at the left knee, which had been promptly incised to its full length in the middle line, and a Thomas’s knee-splint applied at the same time to keep the joint straight. A dorsal curve of the spine had existed two years, and for this she had been supplied, at the Children’s Hospital, with Thomas’s “ back-saddle,” the continuance of which was advised, and safe-guarded from time to time. But her parents very much neglected her back, and repeatedly removed the support, which is a most efficient dorsal splint of leather, strengthened by iron rods, and suitably padded. The result was that the curvature was allowed to very much increase before consolidation eventually occurred. On February 25, at the Infirmary, the incision having healed except a small central aperture, Mr. Parker happened to probe the sinus, which now exuded a drop or two of pus, to judge how far a reopening might appear necessary. The probe passing evidently deep into the knee-joint, through the patella, a free crucial incision (under ether) was made into the articulation wdth a blunt-pointed knife, in order to see what mischief had already occurred, and to prevent its spread. The joint was found to be perfectly healthy, except at the margins of the original patellar aper- ture, which were covered with pale granulations. The in- cisions exposed the entire front of the articulation, and the angles of the four sliin-flaps thus formed were tipped inter- nally by a quarter of the cartilaginous patella, of which the