Some points in the treatment of acute synovitis of the knee-joint ; On the radical cure of inguinal hernia, complicated with undescended testicle / by W. Mitchell Banks.

  • William Mitchell Banks
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some points in the treatment of acute synovitis of the knee-joint ; On the radical cure of inguinal hernia, complicated with undescended testicle / by W. Mitchell Banks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Some Points in the Treatment of Acute Synovitis of the Knee-joint. By W. Mitchell Banks, F.R.C.S. Eng., Surgeon to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and Lecturer on Anatomy Liverpool Medical School. (Read January 20, 1881.) At the present day the writers of medical papers seem to follow one of two plans. They either take a given malady, apply to it the statistical method, and by its aid draw certain deductions, or they give their audience the briefest possible experience of the most new-fangled method of treatment, which lias perhaps only come out during the previous few weeks, and will probably be forgotten in as few more. I do not propose to lay before you any figures. I dislike collecting them, and I do not much believe in them when collected. Neither am I gobm to describe to you the latest surgical fad about joints. I merely wish to give you the general plan of treating acute synovitis into which I have, so to speak, settled down after a fair amount of experience;—simply a bit of practical empiricism, which I trust may not be out of place even in these days of statistics and startling novelties. I have selected the knee-joint to tack my remarks to because it is a very important, and the most commonly affected, articulation. (The author here reviewed the treatment of a joint imme- diately after the receipt of such an injury as a severe wrench or sprain, attaching importance to the plan of soaking the limb for several hours in very hot water. The methods of packing the joint in ice, and of applying pressure by strapping, so as to anti- cipate the almost inevitable swelling were noticed, but he considered that it was not possible in the majority of cases to put these in practice, and believed that we should generally have to rely upon fomentations and opiate lotions to allay the primary pain and swelling.) But the grand thing is as early as possible to give the joint support. It cannot be applied too soon, and it does not matter what the splint is provided it steadies the articulation. A bit
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