Football injuries : being a paper read before the Association in 1903 / by R.H. Anglin Whitelocke ; issued by the Medical Officers of Schools Association.

  • Whitelocke, R. H. Anglin (Richard Henry Anglin), 1861-
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Football injuries : being a paper read before the Association in 1903 / by R.H. Anglin Whitelocke ; issued by the Medical Officers of Schools Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    coming under the sub-luxations, are usually treated as sprains. This is a condition by no means uncommon, and to the football player the most serious that can overtake him, for in the vast majority of cases it entirely unfits him ever afterwards for first- class play. Time will not permit me to enter into the physics of the movements which bring about this disaster; sufficient will it be to say that the internal cartilage is more frequently displaced than the external, and for anatomical reasons ; and that the left knee suffers more frequently than the right. Various conditions give rise to the special train of symptoms to be described later, and they may be classified as :— (1) True displacement of a semi-lunar cartilage. (2) Nipping of folds or shreds of synovial membranes between the bone ends. (3) Loose pedunculated bodies in the joint. (4) To these a condition has been described by Sir William Bennett as “ attributable to the bruising of the peripheral edge of a semi-lunar cartilage and its attachments without dis¬ placement or necessary loosening ; the immediate result of the injury being a local effusion of blood, a portion of which insinuating itself between the bone ends acts as a foreign body.’’ A player while “ scrumming or dodging an opponent or carrying out some other movement which involves semiflexion of the joint with a screw action, feels a sudden pain with a sensa¬ tion as if something slipped out of its place. The limb becomes fixed, and complete extension of the leg upon the thigh is im¬ possible, while it may assume any angle between complete ex¬ tension and half way to semiflexion. The pain and fixity are followed by effusion into the joint with tenderness over one or other semilunar cartilage. Belief may occur from spontaneous reduction, but more commonly surgical manipulation is required. This may be carried out with or without the use of an anaesthetic. Having determined from the history and posture of the limb that manipu¬ lation is necessary, the leg should be bent upon the thigh, the thigh upon the abdomen as completely as possible ; then after rotating the tibia upon the femur inwards or outwards according to the particular cartilage that has been displaced, complete extension is brought about by a sudden movement. If successful, the limb will be capable of the fullest extension. In recurrent
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