The surgeon now has his choice of various methods of disarticulation, either that by anteroposterior flaps or lateral flaps, or by the circular, with the free liberating lateral incision; or he may devise any method of his own which will best meet the indication in a given case. [Fig. 715] illustrates the employment of Wyeth’s pins and the first circular incision made as for the circular method. Of these all the latter seems preferable when circumstances permit. It should be combined with a sufficient lateral incision, which should be made to pass well over the great trochanter. The cuff raised through this incision should extend down to the deep fascia and up to the level of the lesser trochanter, at which level the deeper tissues are divided transversely or by a circular cut.

It is well next to lay down the knife and secure the large vessels, after which the deep muscles are separated from the upper end of the shaft and the proximity of the joint, while the entire limb may be still used as a lever in so stretching the joint capsule as to better expose and divide it. So soon as the capsule has been opened, and the entrance of air thus permitted, it will be easy to expose and divide the teres ligament, after which the balance of the disarticulation is easily effected. The large nerve trunks are now sought, retracted, and divided high up, all visible vessels are secured firmly, after which the elastic constriction may be gradually released and any vessels that spurt may still be secured. There will nearly always be troublesome oozing from the cut ends of the large muscles, and here, if hot water prove insufficient to check it, with large curved needles and catgut sutures the muscle ends may be secured by ligature en masse, before they are brought together for the purpose of closing the stump.

Whatever the method selected as perfect a closure of the wound as possible should be made, with ample provision for drainage. By careful deep suturing, with tiers of buried sutures, it is possible to avoid leaving dead spaces at any point except perhaps the acetabulum. Through retaining sutures may also be used to advantage. It is most desirable to so plan the incisions and the closure of the wound as to keep them, so far as possible, away from the region of the perineum. Therefore the longer the inner flap or inside of the stump the better. As conditions which necessitate removal of the limb at the hip-joint are always serious, and have each their own peculiarities, any method which will best serve the purpose should be used.

[Plates LIX] and [LX], designed by Prof. Matas, afford the best and briefest epitome of the choicest amputation methods which can be furnished.

THE STUMP.

An amputation having been effected, and the stump closed, there is still occasion to consider how it may best be treated to fit it for its future purposes. When entire chapters, or even small monographs, can be written on the subject of “diseases of stumps” it would appear that the consideration is not one of merely trifling import.

A good stump has a regular outline, with a protected scar, and should be firm, yet mobile, and without tender or sensitive surfaces. It should constitute the lower end of a truncated cone, and needs to be of sufficient length to permit leverage within the socket of the artificial limb which will be fitted about it.

A stump failing in these characteristics is a bad stump, the features which especially tend to make it bad being undue conicity ([Fig. 716]) or sensitiveness of surfaces, ulceration from friction, or, worse yet, occurring without it, and neuralgia from inclusion of nerve ends, or from bone ends which present osteophytic outgrowths and thus distort and displace tissues ([Fig. 717]). Acute osteomyelitis occurs in stumps, as do slower carious processes which may call for re-amputation, perhaps even at a distance. The stump is for a long time more or less tender and troublesome, and its owner may be a sufferer from hyperesthesia or perverted sensations.

The possibility of the production of a conical stump in children as the result of atrophic elongation was mentioned early in this chapter. While this cannot always be prevented it may sometimes be foreseen, and one should be prepared at any time in such cases to circumcise the bone, forcibly retract the tissues, and then divide the bone ends on a higher level.

PLATE LIX