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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    pericranium in that situation, and the consequent impairment of the nutrition of the bone. The bony plates deposited in the dura mater correspond to those which, in other cases, have been found in the pericranium, and at length by their coalescence having completed the transformation of the mem - brane into bone, have led some observers into the erroneous supposition that the effusion had taken place between the two tables of the skull. It is fair to infer, from the perfect correspond- ence of the curative process in this case of internal cephalhematoma, with that which is known to take place when the blood is effused on the exterior of the skull, that the remaining steps of the process would have presented the same similarity, if the child’s life had been prolonged. The effused blood would doubtless have become absorbed, new bone would have been deposited on the interior of the cranium, adhesion would have taken place between it and the ossified dura mater, and slight thicken- ing of the skull would in process of time have been the only remaining trace of this extensive mischief. While speaking of the cure of cephalhEematoma, I may perhaps be pardoned for suggesting a doubt as to whether ossification of the pericranium cover- ing the effusion be, as Prof. Chelius* conceives it to be, of invariable occurrence. I have twice watched the spontaneous cure of cephalhsematoma most care- fully, and found the tumour gradually diminish in * Medicinische Annalen, Bd. vi., Ileft 3 ; quoted in Can- statt’s Jahresbericht fur 1842, Bd. i., s. 452.