Injuries of nerves and their consequences - Reflex Sympathetic ...

206 INJURIES OF NERVES.
scribed, but tbe practical
difficulties as to treatment wbicb
tbey occasion we bave yet to consider.
It is very fortunate tbat not every muscle palsied by
nerve injury undergoes great atropby, and tbat of tbose
wbicb endure tbis cbange, not all are affected by consequent
sbortening. The force with wbicb organic sbortenino-
of muscles acts is most remarkable, and is sometimes
so great as to cause dislocations and to produce tbe
most borrible deformities, since tbe healthy opponent
muscles are powerless to resist tbe steady contraction
caused by morbid conditions. Tbe most curious instances
of tbis are to be found in what is known as the
claw-band, wbicb is due to paralysis
of tbe
interossei of
tbe band, and organic sbortening of tbe flexors of tbe
fino-ers, tbe extensor communis remaining intact. (For
examples of tbis condition, see cases at the close of this
chapter.)
Tbe same evils result more frequently, but in
less mischievous forms, from complete palsy of muscles,
wbicb undergo no further changes, but tbe complete relaxation
of which enables their opponent groups to distort
tbe part by slow degrees. Almost every case of nerve
wound offers illustrations of tbis, wbicb, like every form
evil when
of unopposed contraction, is fertile in lasting
it exists in connection with -arthritic troubles ;
for when
this is tbe case, the displacements made by tbe muscles
are rendered, as it were, permanent by the adhesions
which fix the joints in their abnormal positions.
When describing tbe practical annoyances in treatment
wbicb arose out of these conditions, we* called attention
to tbe loss of motion wbicb results from a part being
held in an extreme of flexion, as in tbe case of Monagban,
page 204. Here the band was so bent upon tbe wrist that
the second and third phalanges could not be completely
* Gunshot Wounds, etc., p. 122.