Fig. 7. Hudson’s Trephine. Showing the usual method of using the spiral perforator, spiral follower, and enlarging burr.
The trephining may be carried out with the hand-trephine, or by means of saws, burrs, and trephines driven by electricity. With the exception of a few words on Hudson’s trephine, I do not propose to discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of these mechanically-driven instruments. I hold the opinion that the hand-driven instrument is sufficiently rapid in its work, that it is infinitely safer, and that the surgeon should accustom and perfect himself with those instruments which are to him most convenient and most portable. He will not always be conducting his operations in a perfectly equipped hospital, much of his work will be carried out in the nursing home or in the country. Whatever method be adopted, the operator should use those instruments to which he is most accustomed.
Hudson’s trephine is shaped after the style of the carpenter’s brace and is fitted with three cutting heads—the perforator, the follower, and the enlarging burr. It is claimed that injury to the dura and brain is impossible, the instrument becoming automatically locked so soon as the resistance of the internal table is overcome, a thin film of bone being pushed in front of the advancing head. I have had the opportunity of using this instrument, and so far as my experience goes it answers all requirements. Still, I prefer the ordinary hand-trephine so long as it satisfies certain requirements. It must be of simple mechanism and strong, the handle of good size and shaped to fit the hand, the shaft and head so interlocked as to allow of no independent movement, and the hollow head sharply toothed and bevelled externally, in continuity with the teeth, for a distance of half an inch. The bevelling is so arranged that the actual cutting process is only effected during supination of the hand and forearm. The pin of the trephine should not project beyond the cutting edge for a greater distance than about ·2cm. This pin should be readily removable.
Fig. 8. The Hand-trephine.
The pattern which I am accustomed to use is depicted in [Fig. 8]. The trephines are kept in three sizes—diameter 1⁄2, 1, and 11⁄2 inches. The intermediate size is used for ordinary trephining, the small one for the formation of the osteoplastic flap, the large for the removal of a disk of bone which includes within its circumference the area involved in some depressed and punctured fractures (see [p. 133]).
Fig. 9.
