Gun-shot fractures of the extremities / by Joseph A. Blake.

  • Joseph Augustus Blake
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Gun-shot fractures of the extremities / by Joseph A. Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    history of a fall, suggesting a combined direct and indi¬ rect violence. Fractures by impact and fractures by penetration or per¬ foration : \ As has been pointed out by Leriche, the question as to whether the missile breaks the bone by impact sim¬ ply, or whether it enters or passes through the me¬ dullary cavity, possesses great clinical importance. In the first instance no infectious material is car¬ ried into the bone, and the wound may be considered as a wound of the soft parts so far as infection is concerned; in the se¬ cond, if the missile pene¬ trates the medulla or per¬ forates the bone, any foreign matter upon it is generally caught between the fragments. Gases in which the opening into the medulla is small are particularly dangerous in that, on account of reten¬ tion of the products of infection, extensive osteo¬ myelitis is apt to be caused. The difference between the treatment of fractures by impact and fractures by penetration will be considered later. Fig. 5. — Double fracture of humerus by shell, suggesting a combined direct and indirect violence.