On lengthening of the limb as a result of knee-joint disease / by W.W. Wagstaffe.

  • Wagstaffe, W. W. (William Warwick), 1843-1910.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On lengthening of the limb as a result of knee-joint disease / by W.W. Wagstaffe. 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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    observations are not sufficient to show. Nearly all the cases were under eighteen years of age. Two only exceeded it (7 and 21), and these I left in because the time at which the disease was reported to have begun might have been before the epiphyses had joined, but in neither case had any modifi- cation in the length of the limbs occurred, so that their admis- sion in the list is of doubtful value. The extent of the dis- ease is only to be accurately determined by examination of the parts after removal, and, so far as the cases above given show, the extent and nature of the disease would appear to be the key to the whole question, whereas the duration of the dis- ease in itself does not materially assist the inquiry. The enlargement of the patella noticed in some of the cases (16, 17, 18, 19) is worthy of a passing reference, and points to the value of measurements here, but the subject is beyond the original scope of this paper and is fraught with consider- able difficulty, owing to the absence of distinctness of outline to the bone, and the notes taken are too few to be of any practical value in themselves. Tt will, I think, be obvious that if such changes as have been here described occur in the knee-joint, they must occur in other joints also, and that careful measurements may assist in determining the same questions of locality and character of joint disease as have been inquired into in the case of the knee. The conclusions which I would submit as a result of these observations are the following: 1. Long-standing disease of the knee-joint in young and quickly growing subjects is frequently attended with some modification in the length of the limb. 2. Abnormal lengthening of either femur or tibia is more commonly found than deficiency in length of these bones. 3. The femur is most usually the seat of this abnormal increase in length. 4. Abnormal increase in length of one long bone at the knee-joint may be attended with some or no abnormality in the length of the other bone. 5. It is more usual to find only one bone affected. 6. The amount of lengthening of the femur varied from '6 to 3T cm., and the average in the cases where lengthening