Lectures on orthopedic surgery . Fig. 253.—The Thomas clubfoot brace. position up to the point of painful tolerance, holds itthere for a short time, and relaxes the tension to thepoint of comfortable tolerance, where it is retained untilagain stretched. Thomass method of correcting the deformity by fre-quently repeated wrenchings with retention in theintervals was foreshadowed by Thomas Sheldrake, ofLondon, in 1798. He says : The essential operation 316 to be performed in curing clubfoot is to produce suchan extension of some of the ligaments, as, if it hap-pened by accident, would produce a s
Lectures on orthopedic surgery . Fig. 253.—The Thomas clubfoot brace. position up to the point of painful tolerance, holds itthere for a short time, and relaxes the tension to thepoint of comfortable tolerance, where it is retained untilagain stretched. Thomass method of correcting the deformity by fre-quently repeated wrenchings with retention in theintervals was foreshadowed by Thomas Sheldrake, ofLondon, in 1798. He says : The essential operation 316 to be performed in curing clubfoot is to produce suchan extension of some of the ligaments, as, if it hap-pened by accident, would produce a sprain. Thomassmethod has not been generally understood, and conse-quently has been neither appreciated nor practised byany except a few of Thomass pupils. The methodconsists of intermittent stretching, or wrenching, by awrench and retention in simple iron splint. It is themethod par excellence for the treatment of young chil-dren among the poor, where for any reason tenotomymay not be performed. It is applicable to all degrees. Fig. 254.—The first step in applying the Thomas clubfoot brace. of deformity in young children; it gives as good resultsas can be obtained by any other method, or better; itmore rapidly corrects the deformity than any othernonoperative method; and the cost is it is a cruel method, and one that cannot be em-ployed in many private cases. Many parents prefer alonger course of treatment, or the risks attendant uponan operation, to subjecting their child repeatedly to thepainful wrenching. The wrench, Fig. 249, is made from a monkey-wrench 317 by sawing off the jaws of the wrench, boring a holefrom the side through the fixed head-piece into whichis set a strong pin and a like hole into the travelinghead-piece into which is set a second pin. A slot mustalso be cut in the main stem of the wrench for thesecond pin to play through as the traveling head-piecemoves up and down. A thin, slotted shield is placedat the base of the pins that the
Size: 1878px × 1331px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectorthopedics, bookyear
