Report on surgery : a paper read before the Ohio State Medical Society, at its annual meeting , held at Delaware, June, 1868 / by W. H. Mussey.

Mussey, William Heberden, 1818-1882

Date:: 1868

Credit: Report on surgery : a paper read before the Ohio State Medical Society, at its annual meeting , held at Delaware, June, 1868 / by W. H. Mussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

12/20 page 10

$in the perineum, two fissures of the anus were discovered and treated accordingly. T have treated a large number of these fissures since 1S53, at first following the plan of stretching the sphincter ani with a finger of each hand till the rupture was effected, as I was instructed to do by Mr. Axenfeld, Interne of Lour- cine Hospital, in Paris, in the year 1S52. This procedure I found to answer in many cases of anemic females with lax muscular fiber, but in vigorous subjects the stretching would only occasionally produce complete rupture. I sub- stituted the plan of cutting the muscle at the seat of the fis- sure, but this plan was followed by a long process of healing. I now prefer the subcutaneous division of the sphincter ani at a distance from the fissure, as the cicatrization is more rapid, and is attended with less local irritation. THE TREATMENT OP FRACTURES Has been greatly simplified in these latter days ; the cum- bersome boxes, close confinement, violent extension, and galling counter-extension have been superseded by light splints (where any are required), starched cloth, gutta percha, plaster of Paris and sole leather appliances, with agreeable extension with weight and pulley, and early loco- motion upon crutches. While results prove that in the ma- jority of instances the shortening of limbs rarely takes place, where the surgeon is faithful in his attentions, and frequently readjusts the appliances in the early stage of treatment. FRACTURE OF THE PATELLA. The ring treatment of this fracture is claimed as a new idea, and is recently announced as another benefac- tion given to humanity by the profession, but it is an old plan revived, unquestionably without any knowledge of its previous application. In 1853, I was called to treat a cast) of comminuted fracture of the patella after an accident of many days' standing. There were six fragments scattered in all directions practicable. I placed a splint on the pos- terior aspect of the limb, and attempted to gather up the$