REPORT CV. AN INVESTIGATION ON THE REGENERATION O NERVES WITH REGARD TO SURGICAL TREATMENT OF CERTAIN PARALYSES
REPORT CV. AN INVESTIGATION ON THE REGENERATION O NERVES WITH REGARD TO SURGICAL TREATMENT OF CERTAIN PARALYSES
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DOI:
10.1136/bmj.1.2476.1414-a
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发表时间:
1907-04
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
B. Kilvington
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
B. Kilvington
IN connexion with recent discussions on this subject, may I be permitted to state briefly the results of a considerable hoopital experience of some of the commoner varieties of this class of Injury, treated both by conservative and operative measures? Attempts at reduction have habitually been made under general anaesthesia at tbe earliest moment possible. In the femur, fractures of the shaft have been transverse, short oblique, or torsion (spiral) fractures.. The, reslt, by extension, etc., has been nearer perfection the more the fracture approached the transverse; In the latter the displacement is seldom marked, and the result consequently perfect in some of them. In the second class I have been astontshed at the difficulty and frequent impoesiblblty of reducing (and more so of maintaining reduction of) the longitudinal displacement by extension; this did not sonrpriseme, bowever, after experiencing the extreme difficultteo of doing so by open operation combined with extensiQn in many cases with apparently little shortening; as a consequencea useful, though not perfect, limb with a varying amount of shortening has usually resulted. The large majority of these fractures have been in cl¢lldren. With splral fractures my own experiences and those of others h%ve led me to the conclusion that never, by other than operative measures, can the fragments be placed or maintained in even approximately good position. Persistence in conservative methods has here usually led to shortening of aboout 1 In., often more, eversion, deformity, ap4 pain in varying degrees for as long as I have been able to watch the patients (over geveral months), involving frequently In the poor the necessity for seeking a less aetive occupation. In one or two cases the patient has perhaps been able to hobble with a stick or crutch at the end of three or four months, and these distressing tallures are not an uncommon sight in hospital practice, and possibly frequent In infirmaries. We have only to contrast a confident expectation, warranted by experience, of a perfect restoration of function with no shortening at all In ten weeks at the outside by operative measures; I will only mention a case of a spiral fracture with nearly 3 In. shortening after extension, who, after operation, was running upstairs under seven weeks later with no limp. Little need be said about conservative treatment In Pott's fracture, for the deplorable stiffnees, deformity, and inability to resvime active life, which result at least for several months, If not permanently, In so many cases, have led most surgeons to consider operation the method of choice in these Injuries. In fractures of the bones of the leg,;if transverse, lateral displacement can sometimes be reduced by manipulation; rarely is thls so with spiral fractures, especially if shortentng be at all marked. To summarize, convalescence In cases operated on has taken about half the time in fractures of the femur, and In fractures of tibia aud fibula about two thirds the time necessary for an inferior functional result in those treated conservatively; while aching, pain, and stiffness marked features in the convalescence of the latter class of case, is conspicuously absent throughout the whole treatment in cases operated on. Among fractures of the humerus I need only mention the rotatory, angular, and longitudinal displacements, delayed union, and paralysis due to interference with the functions of the brachial plexus and musculo-spiral nerve, which sometimes have resulted from conservative treatment (not necessarily from neglect of treatmwent), and compare ttieir imperfect or delayed functional recovery and painful convalescence, extending into months or years, with the moral certainty of complete functional recovery in siU to eight weeks when operated on at once. Secondary operations, necessitated by some of the above fatlures, have demonstrated clearly to me the greatly increased difficulties Involved in addition to a farther retarded period of convalescence. The prevention of these failures is always vastly preferable to the cure. Finally, in separation of the lower epiphysis. of the humerus, foitoiie fiexton has certainly sucoeeded in a few cases, and those not the wrorst; but, with .thes.e fewr exceptions, the only results wbich could justify our taking a pride In the patients have been attained by levering the lower fragment into position, without violenee, through a posterior incision, apposition being maintained by full flexion. By this method less renewed haemorrhage and swelllng is -caused, and the subsequent joint movements, taking all cases, is infinitely better. In conclusion, the risks of operation are summed up im sepsis only. I have never seen supppation result from operative interference in fractures, while as to the disadvantages of leaving plates, screws, wires, etc., In the bone,, I have come across no single instance In which any subsequent trouble has atsany time necessitated. the subsequent.removal of them. Such an operation, if necessary,. would, in any case, be the simplest procedure,