On concussion of the spine : nervous shock and other obscure injuries of the nervous system in their clinical and medico-legal aspects / by John Eric Erichsen.
- Date:
- 1875
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On concussion of the spine : nervous shock and other obscure injuries of the nervous system in their clinical and medico-legal aspects / by John Eric Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![spine, but the patient complained of severe pain at tlie seat of the bruise. There was complete paralysis of sensation and of motion in the lower extremities and the trunk as high as the shoulders, and incontinence of fseces, retention of urine. The breathing was wholly diaphrag-, matic. He was quite conscious, and gave a description of the accident. He had suffered from urethral stricture for thirty-three years, so that only a No. 5 catheter could be passed. On the following day his state was much the same. He complained of great pain in the right arm and hand, which were bruised. He said he thought he was para- lysed, as he could not move his legs; but on being pressed to do so, after some difficulty he succeeded in raising both legs, and in crossing them. Sensation appeared to be completely lost. His most distressing sensation was a feeling of tightness as of a cord tied tightly round the abdomen below the umbilicus. 5th.—He had slept well, and was able to move his legs with less difficulty. Pulse 64 strong ; passes fseces involuntarily. Urine drawn off, and was ammoniacal. He was placed on a water mattress, as his back was becoming excoriated. Ordered quinme and acids. Sth.—Wa,8 able to move his head and neck from side to side. Had less pain. Urine more ammoniacal; fseces passed involuntarily. Bed-sores over sacrum had much extended. ] O^/i.—Difficulty of breathing came on, but was re- lieved by the 11th. On the 12th it returned, with mu- cous rales, and he died that night—ten days after the accident. On examination after death the head and brain were found uninjured and healthy. On exposing the verte- bral column, it was found that the sixth and seventh](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21950441_0064.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
