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.

    61/548 (page 49)
    may be kept up so as to prevent shortening from the action of neighbouring muscles. The first object is generally attained by placing two splints one on either side of the limb; but occasionally four splints, en- circling the limb, are employed, the object being to obtaiu perfect steadiness of the fracture, without pressing upon it. Extension is maintained by fixing one end of the splint, which generally under these cii'cumstances is of considerable length, to the limb below the point of fracture, and then, the member having been extended to tlie requisite degi-ee, the upper end is fixed by some convenient ajiparatus. For instance, in a fracture of the thigh a leather strap is passed round the perineum and over a notch in the top of the splint. Many materials have been employed for the manufacture of splints ; wood, zinc, iron, tin, copper, leather, guttapercha, felt hardened by shellac, paste- board, mill-board, rattan cane, reeds, straw, willow branches, and many other materials have been recom- mended, and all have their advocates. There is no doubt that for general use and in the majority of cases a splint made of some light wood, such as deal, is the most efiicient and the best adapted to the treatment of fractures. Metal splints are exceedingly cumbersome and heavy, and possess no advantage over the wooden splint. For though splints of the more malleable metals are capable of being moulded to the limb, the process is one entailing considerable labour, and after all, the splint is rarely found to exactly fit the part. A form of perforated zinc splint is extensively used in the United States army, and is said to be light and useful. Leather and guttapercha are frequently found useful in the manufacture of splints, especially in fractures of the upper extremity and in situations where it is impossible to apply an ordinary wooden splint, as in fractures of the neck of E—17