Dislocation of cervical vertebrae : five cases, recovery without operation / by George L. Walton.

  • George Lincoln Walton
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dislocation of cervical vertebrae : five cases, recovery without operation / by George L. Walton. 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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    appears in the Programme,^ three additional cases of cervical disi)hicemenl have been Itronght to my notice, all terminating in recovery (as regards life!) withont operation. 1 shall therefore })resent these cases briefly Ix-fore describing in detail the two which it Wc'us originally intended to rej)ort. Of these five consecutive cases which have l)een treated at the Mas.sachusetts Oeneral Hospital, two (one unilateral, the other bilateral) are practically well, with scarcely any deformity and no paralysis ; a thii'd (bilateral) with only a moderate irregxdarity of the vertt'bral column ; a foxirth is out and about, though with the head bent to one side and twisted in the manner characteristic of unilateral disloca- tion and with paralysis causing jxartial disablement; the fifth with the head in a similar position, and with progressive panilysis of an upper extremity which ])oints to pachymeningitis, on a<*count of Avhich the prognosis is less favorable than in the other cases. Keduction was attempted in one oidy of these five cases, and in this case it was unsuccessful, although spontaneous rephu'ement occurred later. The two cases which 1 shall firat present briefly are of comparative rarity, in that dislocation was jxresent wdth practically no paralysis. Case I. M. 1)., under the charge of Hr. ISl. H. Kichardson at the Massachusetts General Hospital, six years old, is said to have fallen, twenty-five days before admission to the hospital, an uuknoAvn dis- tance from a tree, striking on his head. He Avas unconscious for a short time. The head Avas bent foiAVju-d on the breast, and deflected to the right- side, the neck being held stiffly. Considerable SAvelling of the back of the neck folloAved. There 2 Dislocation of Cervical Vertebrae Two cases; Spontaneous Recovery.