Treatment. The condition is best remedied by division of the contracted soft parts, a forcible reduction of the bones, held in place by plaster of Paris. When the patient begins to walk, it is advisable to have a stiff, flat, steel plate placed in the length of the shoe between the layers of the leather sole, running from which, over the dorsum of the foot, is a stout leather strap. At each step, downward pressure is thus exerted on the dorsum of the foot.
CHAPTER XVIII
THERAPEUTIC MEASURES
HYPEREMIA
Hyperemia as a therapeutic agent was described by Bier and is of two kinds, active and passive. The former is the same as the arterial, while the latter is the venous. Between the blood of active and passive hyperemia there are important physical and chemical differences, the one containing much free oxygen with but little carbonic acid and alkali, while the other presents the exactly opposite character.
In active hyperemia normal elements of the blood are kept in active motion, while in the passive form they are allowed to escape, more or less, into the tissues.
Hyperemia possesses a great many properties:
1. Power to diminish pain.