On the advantages of the starched apparatus in the treatment of fractures and diseases of joints : being the first part of an essay to which the Council of University College have awarded the Liston Clinical Medal / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Joseph Sampson.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the advantages of the starched apparatus in the treatment of fractures and diseases of joints : being the first part of an essay to which the Council of University College have awarded the Liston Clinical Medal / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    1st February, 1853, stating, that in slipping np on the right side the 'previous evening, he had injured the corresponding ankle. I found the fibula fractured across about one inch from its lower end. The surrounding soft parts were much swollen, red, hot, and painful. The starched apparatus applied immediately as far as the knee. February 2nd.-The pain has been less since last evening, but was again getting worse. The swelling having so far diminished as to render the apparatus loose, I cut it up, placed folds of lint between it and the skin, to insure better fitting, and re-bandaged. February 4th.—As the patient stated that he was per- fectly easy, and could walk on crutches, I discharged him. February 7th.—He presented himself at the hospital as an out-patient this morning, stating that he was perfectly easy up to yesterday afternoon. Since then, had had a good deal of aching pain at the seat of injury. I found that the swelling had almost completely disappeared; and that the apparatus was loose in consequence. After opening it, I pared the edges and re-adjusted. The patient spontaneously entreated me to draw the outer bandage tight, as a means of relief. It was starched; and he walked away from the hospital on crutches quite free from pain. This and the preceding case afford good illustrations, not only of the safety with which the apparatus may be applied to swollen parts, but of its great efficiency in reducing the swelbng and allaying pain. They also exemplify the econo- mical advantages of this mode of treatment; for, whereas collectively the two men were only in hospital five days, they would have been in-patients for at least five or six weeks if treated by the ordinary method—the Dupuytren splint. Case XIV.—William Pond, set. 40, admitted the evening of the 19th February to Ward 1, University College Hos- pital, only a few minutes after a waggon had passed over both his legs. On the right one is a simple graze; on the front of the left one, just above its middle, is a deep graze measuring three inches in length, by half an inch in width.