July 28th an outside angular splint was applied. Aug. 7th there was slight stiffening at the seat of fracture ; and on the 22d only a slight motion could be detected. Nov. 4th, all soreness and discharge having ceased, and the humerus being perfectly stiff, the wire was cut away ; and on the 29th of December he left the hospital well. The wire is shown with the bones. (Med. Jour. Vol. LXXVI. p. 330.) 1868. Dr. H. J. Bigelow.
1007. A third case. The patient, a carpenter, aet. twenty-eight, entered the hospital (119, 124) Jan. 2d, 1865. There had been a simple fracture of the humerus a little below the middle of the bone, twelve weeks before, and that had been treated in the usual way by splints ; but there had never been any attempt at bony union, though the bones were found in apposition. . On the 7th each fragment was drilled in three places, and an inside and outside angular splint applied ; but on the 26th there was no union.
Feb. 25th an incision was made along the outside of the arm, and after dissecting the ends of the bones from the periosteum, in. was removed from the upper fragment, and an inch from the lower. Holes were then drilled, and a silver-plated copper wire was passed and twisted. The musculo-spiral nerve had been divided accidentally ; and the ends, having been brought together, were secured by a suture through the neurilemma. Several arteries were tied ; and, after closing the wound, the arm was placed in an inside angular splint, firmly bandaged, and then upon a flat angu- lar splint, reaching from the shoulder to the hand.
On the 26th there was great numbness over the dorsal surface of the thumb and index finger, and a general pa- ralysis of the extensors of the wrist and fingers. March 8th the wound was open throughout, with considerable in- flammation ; and the suture came away from the neurilem- ma. On the 31st there was considerable stiffness ; and on the 6th of May the arm was quite stiff. June 24th the wire was removed, and is shown with the bones ; sensibility had returned to the thumb and finger, but the extensors of the wrist and fingers were still powerless. On the 17th of March, 1866, he reported at the hospital that he had worked
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