On certain principles and methods in the surgical treatment of the paralysis of children : being an address delivered before the Huddersfield Medical Society / by Robert Jones.

  • Robert Jones
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On certain principles and methods in the surgical treatment of the paralysis of children : being an address delivered before the Huddersfield Medical Society / by Robert Jones. 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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    both active and passive movements of ankles, toes, knees and hips, encouraged. Any movement executed in a jerky style should be practised until perfected. The little patient may now try to walk. It will be noted that one of the difficulties of an untreated spastic when he tries to walk, is the narrowing of the pedestal upon which the trunk rests by reason of adducted limbs. Operation has now overcome this, and with abducted limbs the body is poised upon a pedestal that is widened. During early training the nurse must see that while walking the limbs are not approximate, and that from the first swinging, aided by crutches, must be pre- vented. Crutches should not be allowed until the patient has been taught to stand unsupported. I need not enter into any more detail regarding this most important stage of treatment, but would add that it affords an inexhaustible field for ingenuity, and that upon the intelligence and industry of the nurse very much depends. I cannot now deal with individual cases, but I may say that I have operated upon cases from 12 months to 20 years of age. A large number of these were so bad that they had never attempted to place one foot before the other. Some were structurally flexed (contracted) at ankle, knee and hip. A most helpless youth of 20, one limb across the other, was able in six months to stand erect and walk with sticks, and twelve months later was able to move his limbs north, south, east
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