A treatise on ligaments / by Bransby B. Cooper.

  • Cooper, Bransby Blake, 1792-1853.
Date:
[1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on ligaments / by Bransby B. Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    31/172 (page 27)
    and the posterior forcibly and painfully extended. The ptery- goideus interims is in a complete state of relaxation, the two bony attachments of the muscle being brought closer together. The external pterygoid muscle is also relaxed, in consequence of the condyloid process of the lower jaw being thrown nearer to the sphenoid bone, from which this muscle arises. A perfect knowledge of the situation of muscles under disloca- tion, is quite essential to every medical practitioner, in order that he may be enabled to point out the best mode of reduction, by relaxing those muscles which are put upon the stretch. Nor are frequent opportunities of observing these accidents necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge, because accurate observation of the ordinary functions of the muscles will enable the practitioner to perceive their unnatural state under dislocation. In proceeding to reduction it should be borne in mind, that the action of muscles will present the only obstacle in the case of a recent displacement. Thus in reducing the dislocation of the jaw, the object is by force to depress the condyloid process below the zygoma, and by pressing it backwards, cause the posterior-fibres of the masseter and temporal muscles to draw it into the glenoid cavity. In the subsequent treatment of this case, where we have reason to suspect the laceration of muscular fibre, the jaw should be kept closed as much as possible, to afford the best chance for their perfect union. Displacement of the lower jaw sometimes happens only on one side ; but the mode of reduction and the ulterior treatment do not differ from those of the case in which both sides are dislocated. The difference between the two accidents is so strikingly obvious to the most cursory observer, as to render it quite unnecessary for me to make any remarks on the diagnostic symptoms. D