On the nature and treatment of the deformities of the human frame : being a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in 1843 ; with numerous notes and additions to the present time / by W.J. Little.

  • William Little
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature and treatment of the deformities of the human frame : being a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in 1843 ; with numerous notes and additions to the present time / by W.J. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    373/446 (page 357)
    CONGENITAL DISTORTION OF SPINE. this cavity; more frequently, however, habitual dyspnoea, especially on exertion, exists. Hypertrophy and other de- rangements of the heart sometimes result from mechanical interference with its action; in more numerous instances morbus cordis arises, from the constantly augmented efforts necessary for increased propulsion of blood to compensate for the diminished capacity of the lungs. Heart-disease also follows a more rapid course. Subjects of severe spinal curvature of any description are in later life martyrs to in- digestion, hepatic derangement, and hysteria [universal hyperesthesia] (pp. 19 and 349). Constipation is likewise a source of great annoyance. Congenital distortion of the spine is comparatively rare. Those extensive derangements observable in hemicepha- loid and acephaloid foetuses, and in spina bifida, as they possess no practical interest, and the subjects are seldom viable, may be excluded from consideration. I have met with cases requiring treatment in which the head was retracted posteriorly, through shortening of the trapezius and deeper cervical muscles. Tenotomy was not required in these, the subjects having been young infants; but, amongst other practitioners, M. Guerin has found section of trapezius necessary. Nearly the whole of the distor- tions of the spine in infants are non-congenital.