On the use of plaster of Paris splints in military surgery : [report made to the United States Sanitary Commission].

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use of plaster of Paris splints in military surgery : [report made to the United States Sanitary Commission]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Dr. Grluck published a lecture on Military Surgery, in the American Medical Monthly, for December, L855,* in which he describes a method of using- the plaster of Paris similar to that of PirogofF. Dr. Weber, of this city, reported a case treated in this man- ner in the New York .Journal of Medicine, for May, L856. Other similar methods have also been recommended. Ban- dages with the meshes filled with dry plaster have been ap- plied to the limb and then wetted with cold water; the plaster hardening in a few minutes, formed a solid easing for the limb. Maisonneuve, of Paris, has recently revived the use of this substance in the construction of splints for fractures. 11 is method is similar to that of Pirogoff, and has been fully de- scribed by Drs. Smith and Swan, in their letters from Paris, published in the American Medical Times, during the year 1861. It was applied, for the first time, in the New York Hospital, in May, 1861, by the author of this paper, and it an- swered the purpose so admirably, that its use was continued until, at the present time, it has almost entirely supplanted the starch bandage and other modes of dressings for simple fractures of the leg. In this institution it is applied as soon as the swelling of the limb has subsided, and it then makes a permanent splint for the limb. Its advantages are: its facil- ity of application, and its perfect adaptation to the limb, being borne by the patient better than any other form of appara- tus. It never gives rise to undue pressure over the salient points of the limb, and its property of absorbing moisture keeps the limb perfectly dry, preventing the confinement of the perspiration, and thus doing away with one cause of irri- tation and excoriation. It may be applied with impunity over denuded surfaces and abrasions, without danger of pro- ducing any irritation, slight excoriations or abrasions healing readily under it. Its advantages over the starch bandage are its rapidity of drying and hardening, the plaster taking about five minutes * Republished in American Medical Times, during May, 18G1.