The operative treatment of fractures / by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane.

  • Lane, William Arbuthnot, 1856-1943.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The operative treatment of fractures / by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    involved in the treatment of fractures I will proceed to describe them. I found that the several deformities which were described as lateral curvature, dorsal excurvation, knock-knee, bow-legs, flat-foot, etc., were in the first instance the temporary fixation of a normal physiological attitude of rest in subjects the texture of whose skeletons was more or less abnormal, or was reduced in density as the result of bad feeding, old age, etc., these being variously termed rachitic, senile, etc. According to my observations, as time progressed the fixation became permanent, the deformity being progressively exaggerated. The alteration in the usual form of the growing skeleton when nearly normal in texture was brought about by the consequent abnormal growth of the epiphysial lines, the result of deviation from the ordinary mode of transmission of pressure through them. The degree of bone-formation in the several portions of a growing or epiphysial line varies inversely as the pressure transmitted through them. These changes in the growing line are exaggerated in rickets, and there is associated with them a bending of the shafts of the bones which are abnormally soft. My investigations concerning the results of arduous occupations on the skeleton proved that the changes in the articular surfaces up to about thirty or forty years of age were such as would tend to render the joints more secure. They consisted in the formation of bone and cartilage about the margins of the articular surface, by means of which its area was increased. After middle life the cartilage and bone at the seats of excessive pressure underwent the several changes regarded by the pathologist as evidence of disease, the so-called osteo- or rheumatoid arthritis. I classified these pressure changes in the joint surfaces under the terms mechanical or traumatic arthritis. Those which existed in young life, and which were more or less advantageous, I called, for the sake of convenience,