Rifle—Plate 10.
UPPER EXTREMITY.
Gunshot Fracture of the Left Humerus, with Lodgment of the Missile.
Wound of entrance, anterior surface of upper third of the arm.
Wound of exit, none.
The shadow of the missile shows by its distinct outline and normal diameter at the tip that the missile lies on the side near the plate; the shortened length of the projectile indicates that the long axis lay in an acute angle with a perpendicular to the plate.
The irregular outline of the base of the shadow and the fact of lodgment shows that the missile was deformed and that it was incidentally retarded in velocity by ricochet, so that its penetrating force was not sufficient to carry it through the arm.
The fragments of bone are large and the wound is of the same character as might have resulted from a shrapnel ball, for the normal ballistic conditions of the latter simulate the conditions that produced the wound.
The drainage tubes seen in the plate indicate infection.
The conventional treatment in such cases is drainage and other management of the infection without formal search for the projectile.