Specification of Walter Arthur & William Arthur : truss.

  • Arthur, Walter.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Walter Arthur & William Arthur : truss. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    W. 8f W. Arthur's Improved Truss. It consists of a plate of hard material, by preference of thin metal, covered with leather or other suitable substance, its outline is somewhat kidney-shaped, and in its application to inguinal, scrotal, and femoral hernia its major axis is from above downwards and inwards, and it lies 5 parallel or nearly so to the line of the groin; it is slightly convex towards the abdomen, and its upper and inner angle has an extra amount of convexity or forward curve for the purpose of apposition. We use a pad on its posterior surface composed of some elastic material, and prefer vulcanized sheet india-rubber of, say, about from an eighth 10 of an inch to a quarter of an inch thick, and covered also with soft leather; this pad extends beyond the plate in different degrees, videlicet, less at the sides, more at the bottom, and most at the top, as shewn in Fig. 1; this pad is not only a soft elastic cushion, hut it obviates in a great degree the extension of the plate in the direction and degrees 15 above stated; this pad need not necessarily be attached, hut then an increased extent of plate would he required. In Fig. 6, which is for femoral hernia, the pad has a further extension on its outer and lower edge. We fix a bar of metal or other suitable material by rivets, screws, or other means obliquely across the plate a little below its centre, and 20 projecting like arms at either side; a strap round the pelvis above the hip joints, which may be called the pelvic strap, is attached by buckle or by buttons to either arm, and fixes the truss in its position over the hernia, so that when the truss is fixed in the line of the groin the arms shall lie straight across one side of the abdomen, or at right angles to 25 the mesial line; these arms are raised in front of the plate for the purpose of receiving more direct pressure from the strap, and the outer arm is raised more than the inner one (see Fig. 2) to compensate for the lower level of the outer edge of the truss as it lies in its position; these arms may also be formed in one piece with the plate instead of 30 being affixed to it, or they may be separate projections affixed to the plate. The plate has a greater surface above than below the arms, and the pad also has more surface above than below, so as to compensate for the different degrees of resistance in both these portions of the abdomen, the support being of a more yielding character above than 35 below, and by this mode of adjusting the extent of the surfaces of the truss above and below the arms to the resistance opposed to them a well-balanced instrument is obtained. The pressure from this truss being from an extensive surface and nearly flat where it covers the hernia is not liable to produce pain or uneasiness by arresting the