Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/299

 275

ON

FIXING THE SCAPULA,

IN DISLOCATIONS OF THE HUMERUS. BY JONATHAN TOOGOOD,

Senior Surgeon of the Bridgewater Infirmary.

In almost all surgical works in which dislocations of the shoulder joint are treated of, various methods of reduction are proposed, according to the situation of the head of the bone. Dislocations of the shoulder are, generally, easily reduced, but there is scarcely a surgeon, of any standing, who has not, in the course of his practice, met with cases which have occasioned him a great deal of trouble; and, I believe, it has sometimes happened that reduction has never been effected. In the course of thirty years extensive practice, it has fallen to my lot to see a considerable number of these accidents, and I have been, and have seen other surgeons of great experience, foiled in their attempts, from the difficulty of fixing the scapula. Attention to this point renders the operation easy, as I have often witnessed, where violent and long-continued efforts have entirely failed. Sir Astley Cooper, in his excellent work on dislocations, observes that this is the principal object to be attended to, without which all efforts will be ineffectual. The bandages commonly used for this purpose, do not appear to me calculated to effect the object intended, but, on the contrary, add greatly and unnecessarily to the patient's sufferings, and do not prevent the