Favorable effects of lumbar puncture.
Case 488. (Ravaut, August, 1915.)
An accountant, 20, in the 135th infantry sustained shock from mine explosion near his trench, March 6. He was kept two days at the relief station. March 8, at the ambulance, he did not appear to understand questions and had a fixed stare. He complained of a violent headache and kept pressing his head between his hands. He kept looking about him anxiously, and the slightest noise made him jump. He would mutter a few incomprehensible words, and in reply to a question would give only the last phrase which he happened to have been saying. Lumbar puncture showed a very slight excess of albumin. Next day, he answered his name. March 12, he could speak in monosyllables, and he began to understand what was said. After the lumbar puncture, the headache disappeared and did not set in again. March 13, he began to be able to write and say short phrases. March 16, expression was good though hesitant, and the patient wrote a letter to his parents, telling about his shock. Lumbar puncture showed that the albumin was now normal. From the rear, April 5, the patient sent Ravaut a postcard in perfect form, telling how he was ready to go back to the front.
Re lumbar puncture, Imboden quotes Podmanizky as having used lumbar puncture as a method of suggestion for the cure of abasia. See also cases 560 and 561, in which Claude cured two cases of dysbasia by the device of stovaine anesthesia of the spinal cord. Pastine also has a case in which a slight improvement was produced on removal of cerebrospinal fluid, and a sudden and complete cure was brought about by the second puncture, a very painful tap. Pastine’s case is thought by him (1916) to be in part at least organic.
Bullet wound of forearm: Hysterical clenching of fist. Recovery by fatiguing the flexors.
Case 489. (Reeve, September, 1917.)
A soldier, 28, was thrice wounded between August 18, 1914, and July 14, 1916. The third time, a bullet passed through the fleshy part of the forearm, whereupon the hand became clenched and remained so after the wound was surgically healed. As a case of war neurosis, the man was treated by electricity, massage, passive movements, and fixation in a straight splint during a period of nine months, without result. He was admitted to Maghull Military Hospital, April 18, 1917.
Two days after admission a treatment was given whose principle consists in producing a condition of fatigue in the muscles responsible for contracture. This fatigue is produced by continuous passive movements in a direction opposed to the normal action of the muscles in question. Many hours of forcible movement are sometimes necessary in the case of the more powerful muscles before the limp, toneless fatigue condition is brought about. Relays of men are told off for this purpose. Patients are got to assist in the work, particularly such as have been cured by the treatment. Also, the patient is himself told about the nature of spasms and the relief which the method will bring. This patient was told that after the flexor muscles were fatigued they would no longer be able to pull the fingers into the clenched position, whereupon the antagonistic muscles on the back of the forearm would begin to work.