Relaxation of the pelvic symphyses during pregnancy and parturition / by Frederick G. Snelling.

  • Snelling, Frederick G. (Frederick Greenwood), 1831-1878
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Relaxation of the pelvic symphyses during pregnancy and parturition / by Frederick G. Snelling. 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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    intimately linked together than the symphysis pubis. The articular surfaces are not in apposition throughout their whole extent. That portion which is continuous is posterior. The articular surfaces are sinuous, alternate- ly concave and convex, and have a double obliquity so contrived that those of the right side converge with those of the left, towards the summit of the sacrum on the one hand, and towards its upper and posterior face upon the other; in such manner that a force applied perpendicularly to its superior and posterior surface would tend to force it easily into the pelvic cavity, were it not for the sinuosities of its surface and its peculiar mode of union, which is as follows: The arti- cular surfaces are “revetted” throughout their whole extent with a layer of cartilage, thicker upon the sacrum than upon the ileum. The cartilage is remark- able for the roughness of its surface, which contrasts with the glistening aspect of other articular cartilages. A synovial membrane, difficult of demonstration in the adult and aged, but quite manifest in children and in females during pregnancy, lines its cavity. The inter- osseous ligament is the most powerful of all its means of union. It is composed of a multitude of interlaced ligamentous fibres, extending horizontally from the sacrum to the ileum, almost completely filling the deep excavation between the two bones. The other periphe- ral ligaments are mere reinforcements to the strength of the joints. They are the anterior, posterior, inferior, and superior saero-iliac. To these may, perhaps, be added an ileo-lumbar and sacro-spiual ligament, of but little moment in this connection.
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