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

234 INJURIES OF NERVES.
It was employed repeatedly, and so as to cause the most
intense inflammation of the skin of the whole arm.
Where it failed to irritate sufficiently, he added a larger
amount of the acid. Whatever value this treatment may
have, and it seems scarcely possible to read Mr, Pearson's
cases without accordinof it a larsre share of confidence,
must be due to the extent of surface attacked by the irritant.
—
Injuries by ynissilesof war. The early treatment of this
class of wounds does not require any special notice. The
nerve lesion need in no way modify tlie dressings; and
amount tl^e of inflammation attendant upon ball wounds,
and the subsequent destruction of tissue in the ball track,
make it
unnecessary to consider whether any of those
immediate surgical interferences are demanded, which
are at present among the doubts of surgery in regard to
cases of clean incised wounds of neural trunks.
Every possible precaution sliould be taken to lessen the
chance of deep inflammation and the secretion of pus,
since conclusive evidence has been obtained from experiments
on animals, that nothing
is more fatal to reunion
of nerves than the formation in the wound of large
amounts of matter.
Incised wounds.— An incised wound partially involving
cleansed from fragments of
a nerve, should be carefully
glass or other foreign bodies, the lips brought together as
usual, and the limb set at absolute rest on a splint, with
every precaution to relax the tissues, and to keep the
nerve ends from being drawn apart. Thus, in a wound of
the ulnar at the elbow, the arm should be kept in extension,
and a wound of the anterior nerves should exact a
state of repose in flexion. These measures are rendered
necessary in every case by the tendency of the nerve ends
to separate, for every healthy nerve is in a state of slight
tension, and, on being cut, the extremities tend to draw
apart.