Fractures and dislocations / by T. Pickering Pick.

  • Pick, T. Pickering (Thomas Pickering), 1841-1919.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fractures and dislocations / by T. Pickering Pick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/548 (page 10)
    had suffered from an ulcer of the leg caused by iiijuiy, for fifty years, which eventually became epithelio- matous. Both bones suddenly snapjDed while the patient was sitting up in bed.* Finally, hydatid disease of bone, by excavating it, has a tendency to weaken it, and thus jiredispose to fracture. The consideration of the causes of fracture would not be complete without some allusion to the subject of intra-uterine fracture. These fractures are generally jjrodnced by some external violence applied to the abdomen of the mother during pregnancy; thus, a. violent blow, a fall down stairs, or a fall from a win- dow, may produce a fracture, generally of one of the long bones, of a fwius in utero ; they may be simple or compound. They are usually accomi^auied by great distortion, and if compound the pi-otrudiug bone may injure the uterus, producing abortion. Other- wise the mother may go to the full time, and the fracture be found to be united in a distorted position, or no union may have taken place. Cams relates a case in whicli the injury occurred at the sixth month, and the child was not born till the full time. Intra- uterine fractures are also said to occur, without external violence, by the violent action of the foetal muscle.s. Another class of fractures, which have been termed intrcv-tderine, may occur dviring parturition, from violence in the act of delivery. These are generally situated in the skull and are incomplete, being pro- duced by pressure from the forceps during the jjassage of the head through the pelvis. The long bones of the extremities may, however, be fractured by violent traction, or disunion of the epiphyses may take place. Finally, there is another variety of intra-uterine ♦Path. Soc. Trans., vol x., p. 234.