Fractures and dislocations / by T. Pickering Pick.

  • Thomas Pickering Pick
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fractures and dislocations / by T. Pickering Pick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/548 (page 8)
    III. Causes confined to tlie bone.—Under this heading will have to be considered : (1) The liability of diflerent bones to fracture. (2) The various local changes which take piano ill a bone, and which, by weakening it, predispose it to fracture. (1) As regards the liability of diflerent bones to fracture, it must first be noted that, as would naturally be expected, the bones on the right side of tlie body are more commonly fractured than those on the left, since they are more exposed to violence. The situation of a bone may be a predisposing cause of fracture, from its being more exposed to in- jury; thus, the long cylindrical bones of the extre- mities are more frequently fractured than the bones of the trunk. The shape of a bone has also some influence on its tendency to fracture ; tlius, a long bone is more fre- quently broken than a short one. (2) The various local changes which take place in a bone and predispose it to fracture are atrophy, caries and necrosis, and new growths. AU'opliy of hone predisposing to fracture may occur in several ways. It may be simply the atrophy of old age, or may occur from disuse of a part. As for instance, in cases of hip joint disease, when the limb has not been used for a long time in pro- gression, the femur may become so wasted and atrophied that it will give way under the slightest force employed to straighten the joint. Atrophy of bone may also follow deprivation of l)lood supply. Mr. Curling has pointed out that ati-ophy of a fractured bone follows if the direct supply of blood by the medullary artery is cut ofi'.* The same thing is shown in a preparation in the Hunterian ♦Med.-Chir. Trans., vol. ix.