(37) Oblique Comminuted Fracture of the Tibia
Range '600 yards.'
The entrance wound was large and the exit also. The fracture may have been caused by a Mannlicher (8 mm.) soft-nosed bullet, or possibly a ricochet. The fragmentation is somewhat coarse at the periphery, but very fine in the track of the bullet. Several fragments of the mantle are visible.
The fracture affords a good example of obliquity due to cutting by the bullet, and contrasts well with those due to rectangular impact such as are shown in plates IV. and XIV.
While at Orange River, in conjunction with Major Knaggs, R.A.M.C., and Mr. Langmore, we treated several cases of fracture of the shaft of the femur by this method. The splints were made for us by the Ordnance Department, while the Royal Engineers erected a kind of gallows for us down the centre of a commissariat marquee in order to avoid the risk of using the tent poles for suspension. The patients were then ranged on each side of the tent in two rows so that the pull of the two sets of limbs opposed each other on the gallows from which they were suspended. Although these patients had to lie on the ground, they were really comfortable compared with those treated with long outside splints, and the results obtained were very good: in three cases which I had the opportunity of measuring later the bones were in good position and the shortening was less than one inch.
I have no doubt whatever that Hodgen's splint is by far the best method of treating all cases of fractured thigh in the Stationary field hospitals; and, more than this, I believe it is the only practicable and efficient one. It can be applied without the use of an anæsthetic without causing undue suffering to the patient, it allows of ready change of the dressing, it is comfortable and permits considerable range of movement on the part of the patient, it is as efficient with patients lying on the ground as in a bed, it keeps the limb in good position and allows of constant inspection on this point, and it is the only method which provides satisfactory extension without constant readjustment.
(38) Transverse Fracture of the Tibia, Comminuted Fracture of the Fibula