Fig. 48.—The long splint, with elastic stirrup extension at the foot. Bandage carried up to the seat of fracture.
Step 5. It is customary to carry the bandage further than the ankle, but this is not an essential part of the apparatus, which is simply to keep up the extension in the direction of the axis of the limb. This subsidiary bandage has the disadvantage of concealing the limb, and the position of the broken ends of the bone; but it steadies the limb on the splint, and confines the muscles, thereby preventing pain and perhaps hindering rotation outwards of the upper fragment. Before putting it on, some cotton wool is wrapped round the knee, and laid along the shin; the application of the roller is then begun at the ankle where it first terminated, and is carried up the leg, over the knee, and along the thigh by reverses until the groin is reached, where it finishes.
The perineal band must be changed whenever it gets soiled, and the skin washed before a clean one is adjusted. After the first few days the band need not be very tight; it suffices if not slack or loose. Mr. Coxeter makes india-rubber tubes in the shape of a perineal band; these are filled with water when in use (see fig. 49).
Fig. 49.—Coxeter’s elastic perineal band.
Stirrup extension is a mode of relieving the strain on the front of the ankle, caused by the lower end of the splint being attached to it. A 3-inch wide roller or bit of wood of the same breadth is laid against the sole of the foot, and a stout india-rubber ring 2 inches in diameter is slipped over it. A piece of strapping plaster, 2½ feet long and 2 inches wide, is passed half-way through the ring, and its ends carried up the leg inside and outside; the plaster is kept in place by a roller or second strip laid on in spirals up the limb as in fig. 50, and the india-rubber ring is hitched against a hook at the end of the splint. By this means the strain is transferred to the leg, and the ankle is quite free. It is perfectly successful, and very easy to the patient.
The long splint is to be worn continuously for six weeks; or, what is better, after the first three weeks it may be replaced by a starch bandage, and the patient allowed to get about on crutches with his leg slung from his neck.
Fig. 50.—Mode of fastening the stirrup to the leg, to avoid straining the ankle.
Continuous Extension with the Limb flexed.—The muscles attached to the upper end of the femur sometimes cause so much flexion and rotation outwards of the upper fragment that union of the bones in this position produces a result approaching that in fig. 51, drawn from a preparation in the museum of University College.