Spondylitis and rotary lateral curvature of spine : their proper treatment practically demonstrated with exhibition of cases / by Lewis A. Sayre.

  • Lewis Sayre
Date:
[1885]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spondylitis and rotary lateral curvature of spine : their proper treatment practically demonstrated with exhibition of cases / by Lewis A. Sayre. 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.

    6/54 (page 2)
    escape attention ; the suffering, perhaps not very severe at tlie start, may be attributed to rheumatism or to growing pains, and a physician may not see the case until after faith in home- remedies has been lost. All this procrastination does not give an opportunity for an examination until the projection of the spinous processes at some point or another is quite evident. The pains which have been previously complained of are, as a rule, generally felt at the distal extremity of the nerve filaments which have their origin at the seat of disease. When the difficulty has advanced so far that inflammatory softening and degeneration of the bone have taken place, the weight of the body upon the parts involved will cause absorp- tion most markedly upon the anterior portion of the bodies of the vertebrae, and, as these lose their thickness at this point, the bodies fall together. This causes the spinous processes to as- sume a peculiarly shaped prominence, which has originated the name, posterior angular curvature. ]Sow as to the symptoms. These, of course, vary according to the location of the disease in the spinal column, and, bear- ing out my remark at the start, namely, that the pains are usu- ally felt at the distal extremities of the nerves arising from the spinal cord at the seat of the disease, you will find that if they occur in the cervical region you may notice difficulty in deglu- tition, choking sensations as of a string around the throat, trouble in the larynx producing a constant hacking cough together with pain in the thorax, also numb sensations in the arras and fingers. If the disease be in the dorsal region, you will often be told of pains in the chest or upper part of the abdomen, with a sense of constriction around the body, complicated with indigestion and difficulties of a like character. Again, should the disease be at the lower dorsal or lumbar region, you may expect to find ab- dominal pains, flatulence and colic, constipation, urinary diffi- culties with a sense of girdling around the belly; this condition of affaii's may also be aggravated by pains extending down the thighs and legs resembling sciatica, followed in some cases with partial loss of power in the lower extremities. But in the early stages of the disease these symptoms, fre-