Injuries of joints / by Robert Jones.

  • Robert Jones
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Injuries of joints / by Robert Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/200 page 16
    bone, constituting the origin or insertion of the muscle. The pain is due to tension on this effusion caused by tension on the muscle or by direct pressure on the oedematous spot. Such an injury may be acute in type, arising from a single sudden wrench, stretching, tearing, or other¬ wise loosening the strong fibro-tendinous plexus ; it may be subacute, arising from repeated smaller in¬ juries, as in the familiar ‘ tennis ’ and ‘ golf ’ elbows ; or either of these may pass on to a chronic stage, never entirely dormant, and liable to become more acute on any provocation, and this chronic stage may continue for weeks, disabling the patient from taking part in active pursuits. The reason why this trifling injury is often so long continued and troublesome is that every time tension is put on the muscle a fresh assault is inflicted on the injured tissues, and this repeated injury maintains the effusion and prevents repair of the stretched or torn fibrils. Treatment should therefore be directed definitely, first, towards getting rid of the effusion which sepa¬ rates the torn ends of tissues and so allowing them to come into their proper position; second, towards preventing any movement or muscular effort from stretching and tearing the newly formed repair tissue and so making the condition chronic. This may be done (a) by firm pressure with a folded pad of sticking plaster strapped over the area of effusion to promote its absorption and to act as a local splint on the injured fibres ; (b) by a similar
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