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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    postural prophylaxis in relation to deformity. Since his death, many important advances have been made on the operative side, but the mechanical principles he enunciated are in advance of much of the teaching of the present day. Acute Infantile Paralysis. I will, with your permission, sir, deal first with certain aspects of acute infantile paralysis, viewed chiefly from its clinical side. We all recognise the great importance of this subject, if only from the fact that next to rachitis it is the most prolific source of deformity, a deformity which never disappears spontaneously. Whenever we meet with a para- lytic deformity with shortened muscle or diminished joint movement, it can be safely assumed that, either from lack of knowledge or from neglect, a condition has arisen which could quite well have been avoided. Joint malposition due to muscle shortening or contracture arises from insufficiently opposed muscular action, or from faulty posture, due generally to the influence of gravity. Either con- dition the surgeon’s art should easily enable him to prevent. Provided we know in any given case the etiology of its deformity, we must not be content to meet it half way, but should endeavour to prevent it from ever making its appearance. In a completely paralysed arm the deformity to prevent is one of extension of the wrist and elbow, and partial flexion of the fingers. At the ankle it is extension and inversion, or eversion ; at the knee, flexion ; at the
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