Emergency treatment is antiseptic dressing and coaptation with extension and temporary splint, so that it may support the bone for transportation and may be easily removable at place of continued treatment.
In these cases with lateral separation of fragments, it is imperative to supplement extension with pressure in a line perpendicular to the long axis of the femur.
Plate 53.
Rifle—Plate 53.
UPPER EXTREMITY.
Gunshot Fracture of the Shaft of the Femur
with Lodgment of the Bullet.
The course of the bullet was antero-posterior and diagonally inward from the antero-external border of upper third of the thigh. A thin longitudinal fragment was split off without transverse fracture.
The missile struck the thigh after its energy had been greatly reduced by ricocheting as a result of striking a resisting object which flattened its nose and “set up” its body, as shown by the wavy outlines of the shadows.