Spasmodic wry-neck and other spasmodic movements of the head, face and neck / by Noble Smith.

  • Smith, E. Noble (Eldred Noble), 1847-1906.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spasmodic wry-neck and other spasmodic movements of the head, face and neck / by Noble Smith. 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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    discontinued. About a fortnight after admission, seven grains of sulphate of. zinc, twenty drops of foetid spirits of ammonia in infusion of valerian were given three times a day. The patient was placed under the influence of chloroform on January 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th, and once a week until February 1 ith, when there was for the first time a little improve- ment. She got better, but was not cured, and probably some permanent lesion kept up the spasms. In Spasmodic Wry-neck the spasms generally are relieved by chloroform, being a very different matter from Congenital Wry-neck, where the muscle is permanently contracted and is not relaxed by an anaesthetic. Spinal Irritation.—A class of cases in which muscular con- tractions may occur in various parts of the body, although only rarely in the neck, are those of “ spinal irritation.” Dr. Buzzard records a case 1 of spasms affecting the head and arms, in which the sterno-mastoids acted very strongly, in a girl aged twenty. After sulphate of zinc had failed to do any good, liquor arsenicalis, beginning with five minims three times a day, and gradually increased to double the quantity, lessened the movements by degrees until they were hardly perceptible. There were also epileptic fits. Dr. Buzzard’s experience was that it was only in young people that recovery took place from use of drugs. Failure of drugs to do good.—Dr. John Cross wrote2 to ask for advice as to the treatment of a case under his care, which he described as follows : “A gentleman aged 60, tall, and somewhat full-blooded, “ has for some months been suffering from a painful spasmodic “ action of one of the sterno-mastoids drawing the face slowly ‘‘ but surely round to the shoulder, and resisting the use of the “ patient’s hands to restore the head to its proper position. “ I his spasm sometimes occurs every few minutes, and is less “ frequent when the attention is fixed on some other object, “ an(f never prevents sleep at night. The patient is temperate, “ ^as a appetite and good digestion, and in other respects (<healthy, except that he has occasionally rheumatic and “ neuralgic pains in different parts of the trunk, and once or ‘‘ twice has had distinct threatenings of a classical attack of “ &out* The lower limbs are somewhat erythematous and “ pcchymotic, and the heart’s action is rather weak, but there “ 1S no evidence of organic disease of either heart or kidneys. i< 1 m.ay mention that for some time past there has been a great deal of worry connected with business. 1 British Medical Journal, Dec. loth, 1881.