Account of a case of external and internal cephalhaematoma, complicated with fracture of the right parietal bone, in a new-born infant / by Charles West.

  • West, Charles, 1816-1898.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a case of external and internal cephalhaematoma, complicated with fracture of the right parietal bone, in a new-born infant / by Charles West. 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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    the surface of the dura mater was merely the result of haemorrhage from the vessels wounded by the fracture of the bone. Feist* indeed, and some other writers, have refused to recognise as instances of cephalhsematoma, those cases in which the effu- sion of blood was complicated with fracture of the cranial bones. It should, however, be borne in mind, that cephalhaematomatous swellings, either ex- ternal or internal, do not by any means invariably co-exist with fissure of the cranial bones ; and in the present case, none but a very subordinate share in the production of the effusion can be attributed to the fissure of the parietal bone. Had the extravasa- tion of blood resulted from the escape of that fluid from vessels wounded by the fissure of the bone, the centre of each extravasation might be expected to correspond to the situation of the fissure. This, however, was very far from being the case either with the external or internal effusion, and that tu- mour which was near to the sagittal suture was quite remote from the fissure, and unconnected with it. Both the fissure and the effusion probably occurred at the same time, and from a similar cause, but the latter cannot be considered as the result of the former. In M. Valleix’s valuable work on the diseases of children, is an engraving that illustrates the ease wherewith the blood may be made to transude through the imperfectly ossified foetal skull. The direction in which the pressure acts during la- * t)ie Kopfblutgeschwulst der Neugebornen. Mainz, 1839, 4to, s. 7.