The causes and operative treatment of Dupuytren's finger contraction / by Otto W. Madelung ; translated from the German.

  • Madelung, Otto Wilhelm, 1846-1926.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The causes and operative treatment of Dupuytren's finger contraction / by Otto W. Madelung ; translated from the German. 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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    was going on favourably. Cautioned not to remove the dressings, he said, witli a knowing look, “ that he was not such a fool as to do so. When the itching is troublesome,” said he, “ I insinuate the blade of my pocket or dinner knife under the bandage and scratch a little, without disturbing the bandage.” On hearing this, the bandage was at once removed, when its inner parts were found extremely offensive. The coagulum of blood which since the operation had covered the wound, had disappeared, and blue, stinking pus had taken its place. The edges of the wound were red and inflamed, and the hand up to the wrist was oedematous. In spite of the renewed application of strong antiseptic means, the inflammation spread rapidly. An abscess, unconnected with the joint, formed on the vola of the wrist, and had to be opened. The tendon of the little finger became denuded in the bottom of the operation wound, accompanied by a copious secretion of pus. Necrosis of part of it occurred, but was happily of very limited extent. The final result was the following:—The ring-finger could be straightened and flexed easily and completely, whilst the little finger could only be passively moved in its several articulations, and stood in an almost completely extended position. The patient could flex the whole finger but slightly—indeed, it has become such a hindrance for his trade, that its amputation would be quite j ustifiable. I repeat once again, that this is the only case in which, after the employment of the operative procedure in use at Bonn, the power of using the hand has been partially lost. A patient whose hands had been operated on by Busch’s method for contractions of the fingers in the very highest degree, and a great number of casts in plaster of Paris of hands that had been operated on by the same procedure, were shown by me at the Fourth Congress of the German Society for Surgery, held at Berlin on the 21st of April of this present year 1876. Bonn, 16t/i May 1376.