Practical essay on lateral curvature of the spine: with remarks on a new operation adopted in the treatment of that disease / [Frederic C. Skey].

  • Skey, Frederic C. (Frederic Carpenter), 1798-1872
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical essay on lateral curvature of the spine: with remarks on a new operation adopted in the treatment of that disease / [Frederic C. Skey]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    10 tural convexity of the ribs behind; partly also due to the action of the abdominal muscles, in drawing the sternal extremities downwards. The deformity is increased by the presence of the scapula, which has to accommodate itself to the rounded prominence on which it rests, and by the projection of which, the deformity is rendered still more apparent. It is very important, in the consideration of this subject, not to confound two very distinct causes of lateral curvature: one resulting from unequal pressure on the spinal column from above; the other, from continued muscular exercise. In the former the curve is more distinctly sigmoid or double; while in the latter, the product of mus¬ cular efforts, the distortion is in a marked degree more restricted to the middle or dorsal portion ; which appears drawn out of the natural direction towards the unequally exercised limb. They may, generally, be distinguished at a glance by the condition of the muscles, which are prominent and rigid in those examples which are dependent on muscular effort, and are atrophied and relaxed in the more common forms of distortion, produced by unequal pressure from above. The former, moreover, occur in strong and healthy male sub¬ jects, the latter in women and children, or in young persons of both sexes, but chiefly females. Among the immediate or proximate causes of