Removal of both astragali in a case of severe double talipes / by Edward Lund.

  • Lund, Edward, 1823-1898.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Removal of both astragali in a case of severe double talipes / by Edward Lund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    SEVERE DOUBLE TALIPES.* “ Finis coronat opus” is a motto which may be well applied where the operation we have to describe is novel in character, and therefore one in which it is needful to show cause why it should be performed at all. These remarks are applicable to the details I am about to relate of the removal of both astragali in a case of severe double talipes. H. W., aged 7 years, a native of Whitchurch, Shropshire, was ad- mitted into the Manchester Royal Infirmary, under my care, for double talipes equino-varus, on January 22nd, 1872. From the history, I learned that he had been born with the deformity ; that, when six months old, he had been placed under the care of an orthopaedic sur- geon in London, the tendons had been divided, and he remained under treatment four months. He then had an apparatus for the feet, which he wore until he was thirteen months old ; and after this he was pro- vided with boots with irons attached, which he used until very shortly before the time when he first came under my observation. He could at one time move about pretty well; but, as he lived in the country, no farther attention was given to the case ; no alteration was made in the size or strength of the apparatus, and it no longer controlled the vicious direction of the feet. The child walked upon the external border of each foot; the toes were turned inwards, almost to the transverse degree ; the heels ceased to touch the ground ; and, very rapidly, what- ever improvement in the form of the feet might have resulted from the division of the tendons was entirely lost. It was very apparent, on an inspection of the deformity, that the bones of each foot had become so crumpled up and faultily placed that the articular surfaces were changed in form, so as to interfere with their * Read in the Surgical Section at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association at Birmingham, August 1872.