Plate 93.
Shrapnel—Plate 93.
UPPER EXTREMITY.
Gunshot Fracture of the Right Humerus.
The course of the missile was transverse, from without inward and downward, striking the shaft of the bone squarely and producing a characteristic “butterfly” fracture, with a separation of the fragments.
The exposure was made with the ulnar side of the arm next to the plate, indicated by the clear outline of the internal condyle and the olecranon.
The nearly normal size of the shadow of the shrapnel ball shows it to be near the plate, and therefore to lie on the inside of the humerus. The irregular outline of the ball and the metallic fragments spattered about indicate that the ball was deformed by the detachment of fragments on direct impact with the bone. The wound is not infected.
The treatment is conservative in such cases and the results are good.