Observations on the histology of fracture repair in man / by J. Greig Smith.

  • Smith, J. Greig, 1834-1897.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the histology of fracture repair in man / by J. Greig Smith. 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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    surrounding the fibula afforded many admirable specimens of the process of repair. This preparation had a practical as well as a pathological interest, proving that under antiseptics at least we may get a compound fracture repaired in the same way as a simple fracture, and not necessarily, as Dupuytren and others supposed, through the medium of granulation tissue only. But such a proof is, in these days, almost superfluous. 6. A simple fracture of the tibia and fibula in a woman aged forty, who died of an attack of acute bronchitis twenty-five days after the accident. This was a typical case of repair, there being no comminution and little displacement. Except in the exposed medullary canals, where there were some remains of partially decolorised clot, all appearances of blood-extravasation had disappeared. The reparative material, fibrous, cartilaginous, and in parts bony, surrounded and glued together the severed extremities. 7. An intra-capsular fracture of the neck of the femur in a woman aged sixty-one, who died of bronchitis four weeks after the accident. The fracture was close to the head of the femur, and traversed the neck in a plane at right angles to its axis. The crevices in the spongy bone were filled with partially organised blood-clot. On the upper aspect a bridge of fibro- cartilage united the fragments, in the substance of which, but not continuous with the old bone, was a nodule of calcified tissue about the size of a pea. 9. A case of fracture of an upper dorsal vertebra in a man aged twenty-five, who died of disease of the cord eleven months after the injury. A fracture very similar to that in case 4 was found perfectly united by the development of osseous material in the overlying ligamentous tissues. There was thickening of the bony trabeculse along the lines of fracture, and partial calcification of the adjacent intervertebral fibro-cartilages. 10. A wet preparation in the Infirmary museum of a fractured femur in the adult afforded some good specimens of callus calci- fication, but was not fully examined. Each of these specimens was prepared in various ways. Portions of the surrounding soft tissues, in which it was im- portant to preserve the first appearances of calcification, were cut off and hardened in Miiller's fluid, or in spirit. For decalcifica-