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Volume 41-B, Issue 4 November 1959

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J. C. Scott
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P. S. London Ruscoe Clarke
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1. The methods of treating flayed limbs are enumerated, with mention of the reasons against conserving the injured skin.

2. The reasons for conserving the injured skin are presented and they are backed by the results in the patients described.

3. The factors that may influence the survival of injured skin are discussed, and the indications for, and methods of, conserving injured skin are described.


J. Trueta
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1. The three age types of acute haematogenous osteomyelitis are conditioned in their respective clinical features by the differing nature of their vascular bone pattern.

2. In the infant the condition causes severe and often permanent epiphysial damage and joint infection, a large involucrum but only transient damage to the shaft and metaphysis.

3. In the child the condition is responsible for extensive cortical damage with involucrum formation, but, except for some stimulation of growth, permanent damage to the growth cartilage and to joints is exceptional. Chronicity of the disease is rare if treatment has been effective.

4. In the adult acute osteomyelitis of the long bones is rare. It causes very frequent joint infection; the cortex is absorbed instead of sequestrating. The whole of the bone is invaded and frequently leaves chronic infection in the bone marrow.

5. The vascular characteristics of the bones in each age group and their relation to the onset of infection are described.

6. Some general directives for management based on these facts are suggested.


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D. E. Rowling
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Rudolf Leffmann
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1. Eighty infants with congenital dysplasia of the hip, diagnosed before walking began, are reviewed.

2. The clinical and radiographic features of congenital dysplasia are described.

3. A dysplastic hip may either become normal spontaneously, or it may deteriorate to the state of true dislocation.

4. Treatment is discussed.


THE ACETABULAR INDEX Pages 702 - 710
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Rae Duncan Laurenson
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What is the present position? There is no doubt that the meaning of Kleinberg and Lieberman has been misconceived. With the passing of years their cautious conclusion concerning the acetabular index has been transformed into a firm conviction. Even so, it is apparent from the literature that the use of the acetabular index is a matter of controversy, and that, to a lesser degree, the normal values of the index are a matter of debate.

It is concluded that the measurement is not an absolute index of a predisposition to congenital dislocation of the hip and cannot be divorced from other radiological signs. Nevertheless, so long as there is a feeling of uncertainty about the most reliable early signs of congenital dislocation of the hip, it would be folly to ignore a high acetabular index, especially in an infant over six months of age.

It seems that to radiograph every infant at birth is not justified. The radiological signs at birth are not only unreliable because of problems of technique, but also equivocal because of the small size of the structures and the fact that they consist largely of cartilage. Until the radiographic technique is standardised it would be advisable to continue to regard 30 degrees as the upper limit of normal for the acetabular index in the newborn.

To make recommendations concerning treatment is beyond the scope of this paper. Nevertheless it is worth stating that the presence of a high index alone is not necessarily regarded as an indication for immediate treatment. But an infant found to have a high acetabular index should be kept under close observation and should be thoroughly examined at regular intervals before the beginning of full weight bearing.


J. S. R. Golding J. E. MacIver L. N. Went
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1. The bone changes are described in fifty-one cases of sickle cell anaemia. nineteen cases of sickle cell haemoglobin C disease and two cases of sickle cell thalassaemia.

2. Avascular necrosis of the head of the femur has been found in all three types of sickle cell disease. These responded to treatment.

3. The changes found in six cases of Perthes' disease in the negro are compared with the changes in avascular necrosis of the head of the femur in sickle cell disease.

4. Hyperplastic bone changes are seen only in true sickle cell anaemia and not in the variants.

5. Secondary osteomyelitis appears to be fairly common in sickle cell anaemia. Organisms of the salmonella group have often been found in these cases.


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J. I. P. James G. C. Lloyd-Roberts M. F. Pilcher
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SCOLIOSIS IN TWINS Pages 736 - 737
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G. Murdoch
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I. G. MacKenzie
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One hundred cases of Lambrinudi's arthrodesis are reviewed. The shortest follow-up was one year. and the longest twenty-seven years. Thirty-seven per cent were successful. Nineteen per cent were failures; many of these were associated with faulty technique, and one method of operation which gives good results is described.

Success is likely if there is a balance of power between the dorsiflexors and plantarflexors of the ankle, especially if there is some fixed equinus before operation.

Success is less likely when the operation is done for a flail foot. In such circumstances arthrodesis of the ankle may have to be considered subsequently for instability of the lateral ligament, recurrence of dropfoot, or arthritis which may develop in the more active patients.

Age in itself is no bar to success, but pseudarthrosis is more likely to occur in patients over the age of twenty.


R. A. Bremner
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G. C. Lloyd-Roberts D. I. Williams G. T. F. Braddock
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1. We have described an operation the aim of which is to reduce the gap at the pubic symphysis which accompanies ectopia vesicae.

2. The operation. as it is now performed, simplifies subsequent bladder closure and repair of the associated divarication of the recti.


F. C. Durbin
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1. Three cases are reported of avascular necrosis of the head of the femur after undisplaced fractures of the neck of the femur in childhood.

2. It is suggested that the diaphysial vessels play a more important part in the supply of the epiphysis than has previously been recognised.

3. The prognosis for any fracture of the neck of the femur in a child given at the time of the injury should be guarded.


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B. Victor Jones R. N. Ipswich
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1. A case is described in which the extensor indicis tendon was replaced by a short muscle arising from the soft tissues on the dorsum of the wrist.

2. The patient complained of pain in the hand after heavy use. This was considered to be due to constriction of the muscle by the extensor retinaculum. Division of the retinaculum was followed by a considerable improvement in his symptoms.


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I. Abramowitz
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1 . Three cases of triphalangeal thumb are described in three generations of a Bantu family. In the youngest member both thumbs were affected; in his mother and grandfather only one thumb was abnormal.

2. The literature is reviewed and the etiology of the anomaly is discussed.

3. Attention is drawn to the hereditary tendency of this condition.


F. R. Zadik
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E. Thyge Madsen
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Ian K. Sharp
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F. William Shea
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J. H. Penrose
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Guy Almond Eric Vernon
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V. P. Amato Sliema Malta R. Bombelli
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The blood supply of the vertebral column of the rabbit has been studied. A description of the embryological development of the blood supply is followed by a description of the blood vessels supplying the adult vertebra.


A. M. Wiley J. Trueta
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1. Vascular anatomical studies of the spine are described and the possibility of spread of infection from pelvis to spine through the paravertebral venous plexus is discussed.

2. Though a venous route does exist, our studies do not support the supposition that infection is likely to spread by this route; nor is there any clear clinical, pathological or anatomical evidence that such spread occurs.

3. Nineteen cases of pyogenic osteomyelitis of the spine are recorded, six of which followed urinary infections. The condition is compared with osteomyelitis as it occurs in the other bones of adults.


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John T. Scales G. D. Winter H. T. Shirley
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1. A total of 564 metal components from 109 patients have been examined.

2. Corrosion was detected on 228 components.

3. Most implants were removed for reasons other than corrosion.

4. In at least twelve cases corrosion was the reason for removal of the implant.

5. No corrosion of cobalt-chromium-molybdenum implants has been detected by the methods described in this paper.

6. Corrosion of ferrous alloy implants occurs in the human body.

7. The most common site for corrosion is the junction between components of implants.

8. The most corrosion-resistant type of ferrous alloy for implant uses is 18/8/Mo steel, which falls within specification En58.J of the British Standards Institute, and specification 316/317 of the American Iron and Steel Institute.

9. About 13 per cent of components removed (and by no means only when something was amiss) showed "face" corrosion when all the components of the implant were made of 18/8/Mo steel.

10. Four per cent of 18/8/Mo components of implants showed corrosion at sites other than the interface between components.

11. On the basis of corrosion resistance it is preferable to use cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys for implants that are to be left in the body for an indefinite period.

12. The corrosion resistance of the high alloy steels examined (18/8, 18/8/Ti, 18/8/Mo) does not appear to be related to hardness.

13. The marking of components, either by punching or by electrolytic methods, has not predisposed to corrosion.

14. All hollow 18/8/Mo implants should have a clean and metallurgically satisfactory internal surface.

15. The figures in this report do not permit a full statistical survey of corrosion in surgical implants because it has not been possible to examine a satisfactorily random sample. Many patients cannot be followed up and others die with the implant still in the body.


CLUB FOOT Pages 821 - 835
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A. M. Wiley
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Anders Hulth Olle Westerborn
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The present investigation has shown that crude papain can be used to produce rapid changes in the epiphysial cartilage of various young laboratory animals (rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs and cats).

1. Single injections of crude papain produce profound changes in the epiphysial cartilage. These changes disappear within a few days. They are radiographically visible as a narrowing of the epiphysial plates. Histologically, the formation of bony trabeculae in the primary spongiosa is found to be arrested.

2. Repeated injections of crude papain cause permanent damage to the epiphysial cartilage, often with bony closure. Consequently, the longitudinal growth of the injected animals, when compared to the controls, is found to be retarded or permanently arrested, and there may be severe bony deformity.

3. Using inactivated crystalline papain, we have been able to produce changes in the epiphysial cartilage identical with those caused by the injection of crude papain.

4. The injection of crude papain is dispelled by the addition of cysteine, but retains its full strength if hydrogen peroxide is added.


WILLIAM EDWARD GALLIE Pages 848 - 850
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F. P. D.
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ARTHUR STEINDLER Pages 850 - 852
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H. J. S.
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ALAN RUSCOE CLARKE Pages 853 - 854
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W. G.
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A. D.
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Norman Capener
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A. G. O'Malley
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Joseph Trueta
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Joseph Trueta
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D. Ll. Griffiths
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D. Ll. Griffiths
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R. G. Pulvertaft
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J. N. Aston
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E. Henrietta Jebens
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W. Blackwood
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Joseph Trueta
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A. F. Bryson
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Philip Newman
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W. D. Coltart
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David L. Evans
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W. D. Coltart
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Philip Wiles
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J. N. Wilson
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D. S. McKenzie
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A. L. Eyre-Brook
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R. Weeden Butler
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J. G. Bonnin
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Joseph Trueta
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K. I. Nissen
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L. W. Plewes
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Bryan McFarland
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C. Davenport
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C. Davenport
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