A MODIFIED HODGEN SPLINT FOR THE TREATMENT OF FRACTURES OF THE THIGH OR OTHER PAINFUL AFFECTIONS OF THE LOWER EXTREMITY. BY GEORGE S. BROWN, M. D., Birmingham. Junior Counsellor of the Medical Association of the State of In August, 1897, the writer published a paper on this subject in the New York Medical Journal and again, in 1899, another article in The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. In this last paper a few minor changes had been made in the splint and especial attention was called to its usefulness in treating affections other than fractures of the thigh. Since that time a few other changes have been made and I am led to hope that with the aid of better photographs this present paper may be of service in hastening the general adoption of the method which its usefulness so completely deserves. The Smith's anterior splint was bound to the front of the thigh and leg and was intended only for suspension. Hodgen widened the bars until the whole limb could drop in between; he then slung the limb to the side bars by strips of roller bandage underneath, leaving the front of the thigh and leg entirely uncovered for inspection. Since the splint was no longer bound to the limb, as with the Smith's anterior, he fixed the leg in it by means of the adhesive strips and foot block as in the Buck's apparatus. Although a number of good articles have been written on this subject, notably the one by H. H. Mudd, in Park's Surgery, the text books as a rule have given it very little space and it has never met with the general adoption it deserves. The chief reason for this neglect undoubtedly lies in the fact of the difficulty of conveying in written words an adequate idea of its usefulness or indeed of making the application of it clear. Nearly every one who tries to apply it without first having seen it applied, fails with it; while those who have seen it properly used succeed so well that they practically never go back again to any of the other methods. |