Massage in traumatic paralysis / Ferd. Engelbrechtson.

  • Engelbrechtson, Ferdinand.
Date:
[1911?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Massage in traumatic paralysis / Ferd. Engelbrechtson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/20 page 14
    volved. The paralysis brought about by hemor- rhage in one of the cerebral hemispheres, called hemiplegia, we can consider practically the same as a traumatic paralysis. This condition is due to a blood clot destroying a certain num- ber of neurons supplying the part paralyzed, and the chances for recovery depend entirely on the number of neurons so destroyed. In regard to the paralysis which comes on slowly and gradually, what might be called ‘senile paralysis,’ this is not a paralysis at all. Answering the question that was asked as to infantile paralysis, I do not give very much encouragement. There is a great area of neu- rons involved due to infection, this spreads and becomes widely diffused, and the chances are that all the neurons supplying the parts af- fected have been destroyed. It is not a paraly- sis, In which the injury is confined to a small area. In most of these cases recovery is very doubtful. ‘It is in the same class as any in- fectious paralysis. We have post-typhoid paraly- sis; they are in the same class—a great area involved, and every one of the neurons supply- ing the parts affected has been destroyed. And in such cases we cannot accomplish anything for the reason that all massage can do is to strengthen those muscle fibres that are still under nervous stimulation to such an extent they will do the work of the ones not acting. Of course, if many of them are inactive we can- not do much and if all are inactive we cannot do anything.
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