A case of spontaneous fracture of uric acid calculi / by Charles B. Plowright (per W.M. Ord).

  • Plowright, Charles Bagge, 1849-1910.
Date:
[1896]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of spontaneous fracture of uric acid calculi / by Charles B. Plowright (per W.M. Ord). 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.

    1/8 (page 1)
    Reprinted from the ‘ Transactions of the Pathological Societg of London’ 1896. A case of''spontaneous fracture of uric acid calculiy By Charles B. Plowright, M.I). (per W. M. Ord, M.D.). fllHE spontaneous fracture of calculi in the human bladder is not X of very frequent occurrence, but cases every now and again present themselves, and are always interesting, since it seems so contrary to the ordinary sequence of events to find such hard intractable bodies as uric acid calculi falling, so to speali, in pieces of their own accord. Especially so does it strike us who are called upon to crush them artificially, for we know that even when they are caught between the jaws of the lithotrite a considerable amount of force has to be applied before they can be broken. On looking over a fairly extensive collection of calculi, various specimens will probably be found, and it will be evident that spontaneous fracture has not occurred in all cases in exactly the same way. Various explanations of the phenomena have been suggested, such as the concussion of two or more calculi in the bladder from violent exertion on the part of the patient or from blows or falls, the generation of gas in the interior of the stones, swelling of the nuclei, and the like. In the present case the patient was a man seventy-two years of age, who was admitted into the West Norfolk and Lynn Hospital in the year 1867 with symptoms of stone. He died in the month of April, and the specimens which form the basis of the present communication were removed post mortem. They consist of some 240 fragments, weighing 270 grains. Besides these fragments, there were four entire calculi about half an inch in diameter in the act of splitting. Three-of these have been cut in halves with a fine saw and the cut surface rubbed smooth upon a hone. Amongst the fragments there are the nuclei of twenty-one calculi, so that each calculus would weigh when entire about 10 or 12 grains. The reason these specimens have for so long escaped closer attention is a simple one, namely, that they were regarded as being