On anormal nutrition in articular cartilages / by P. Redfern.

  • Redfern, Peter, 1821-1912
Date:
1849-1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On anormal nutrition in articular cartilages / by P. Redfern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ment,the urine became much less in quantity, and of sp. gr. 1*025, but diarrhoea came on with extreme prostration, and he died on December 22, and was removed to the dissecting-rooms, where the disease of the cartilages was discovered. This patient walked perfectly well on his admission into the hospital and made no complaint whatever of his knee. He stated that in his usual occupa¬ tion of building dry stone walls, he had been much exposed to cold and wet. About ten weeks previously, he fell into a quarry thirty feet deep, and “ injured his thigh and shoulder, which confined him to bed for* a short time, but he was able to go about during his recovery; and, within a fortnight, to leave Fife- shire (where the accident happened) for home.” Examination of Left Shoulder.—The scapula presents two vertical fractures one separating the glenoid cavity, and the coracoid process from the body the other removing the acromion and a portion of the spine. The fragments’ are only slightly displaced, and very firm union has taken place. On the same side five ribs below the first show a united fracture about the middle of each. The’ first rib, the humerus and clavicle show no trace of injury, but both clavicles wei e lemoved with difficulty at their sternal ends, owing to dense fibrous tissue around the articulations. Examination of Left Knee-Joint.—The femur has its surface covered with healthy cartilage throughout. The central part of the external glenoid cavity of the tibia is evidently raised over an extent of surface equal in size to a small horse-bean. The swelling is highly elastic, and fluctuates indistinctly. It has no abrasion of any kind on the surface, but close to its edge, at the part looking towards the central and posterior part of the joint, there is a fissure extending backwards and inwards for one-fourth of an inch. The fissure is also oblique in relation to the surface, for, in passing down towards the bone, it in¬ clines from before backwayks and outwards. It lodges a fibrous mass, which is adherent to the posterior lip of the*fissure, and projects one-tenth of an inch beyond the surface.. At its ends, the fissure appears limited, but from the an¬ terior one, an indistinct depression leads forwards for two lines, bounding the raised part, and appearing like a trace of a healed fissure. Two sections were carried through the external condyle of the tibia, from before backwards, perpendicularly to the surface of the cartilage, one passing- through the centre of the raised portion, the other by the internal side of the fissure. These sections removed a portion of bone and cartilage, half-an-inch broad, of which the lateral surfaces are delineated in Fig. III. and IV. On both these sections the bone presents an even and perfectly distinct plate of compact tissue, from one-tenth to one-fifteenth of an inch in thickness where it is in contact with the cartilage. The first section (Fig. III.), shows the car- Fig. III. a P Fig. IV. P a -t v, cujt, uj jwi tmb tissue projecting jrom the fissure. B
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