A new mode of treatment of congenital talipes : also a new mode of amputation at the ankle-joint / by I.N. Quimby.

  • Quimby, I.N.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new mode of treatment of congenital talipes : also a new mode of amputation at the ankle-joint / by I.N. Quimby. 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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    applied, commencing at the toes and extending up to the knees, serving to keep the plasters adherent to the limb. During the first two weeks of the treatment the bandages were changed every day, and plasters twice a week—at the same time very thorough passive motion was made. During the third week the bandages were changed every other day, and the plasters only once, and in the fourth week the ban- dages were changed twice a week, and the plasters whenever they became displaced. This manner of treatment was kept up for two or three weeks, when the improvement was so great that I found it unnecessary to remove the bandages and plasters except as they became displaced. The treat- ment was continued for three and a half months, since which time she has worn nothing but a common shoe, and her feet, are perfectly restored, there being not even the turning in of the toes, which is so common witli children who have suffered from this deformity. Case II.—June 15, 1867, Mrs. M. brought me her babe, between three and four months old, with a very marked and obstinate type of “ talipes varus ” of the right foot. My first impression was, after careful examination of the case, that I should divide the tendon Achilles and the plantar facia, and so informed the mother, and directed her to return the following day for that purpose. But in contemplating the yielding tendency of the human frame under constant application, especially in early life, and the gratifying result of my former case, I determined to try the stretching process with adhesive plaster in this case, although it had advanced beyond the period most apropos for its use, viz., at or soon after birth. Notwithstanding the advanced age of the child, I commenced to use the plaster very much as I did in the former case, and am happy to say, that after about five months’ application, and thorough passive motion, the foot was almost wholly restored without any diminution in its size or development. This treatment has been kept up mostly by the mother, and partly by myself, until the pres- ent time, and now the child (being thirteen months old) commences to walk, using one foot as well as the other.