CAPPED ELBOW 



359 



Treatment. — The line of treatment to be adopted will depend entirely 

 on the way in which the disease presents itself. If the enlargement is 

 sudden in its appearance, and attended with inflammation of the structures 

 involved, the patient must be put to rest and subjected to the same treat- 

 ment as that prescribed under similar circumstances for bog-spavin. 



In chronic cases firing and blistering will be resorted to at once, after 

 which pressure applied by means of a suitable compress (fig. 383) may 

 further reduce the enlargement. In some instances it may be desirable to 

 open the sac, and after letting out its con- 

 tents inject it with tincture of iodine or 

 some other irritant. This, however, is a 

 procedure that can only be safely decided 

 upon and undertaken by the experienced 

 practitioner. 



CAPPED ELBOW 



When a rounded swelling occurs on the 

 point of the elbow, the part is said to be 

 " capped ". Sometimes the enlargement is 

 solid throughout, at others it consists of a 

 sac containing a straw-coloured or blood- 

 stained fluid. 



Causes. — Capped elbow (fig. 384) is 

 the result of injury inflicted by the inner 

 heel of the shoe, either in the act of lying 

 down or while being down, or as a result 

 of slipping while attempting to rise. In 

 these cases the foot has been allowed to 

 grow too long, or the heel of the shoe is 

 unduly extended backwards so as to strike 

 or irritate the elbow. 



Symptoms. — The swelling may appear 

 in a few hours, or it may be of slow growth. 



If the injury is severe the tumour develops rapidly, and is besides hot 

 and tender and mostly fluctuating to the touch, like a cavity filled 

 with fluid. If, on the other hand, the elbow suffers only slight but 

 repeated irritation by contact with the shoe, the growth is slow to develop. 

 At first it is somewhat soft, but as it increases in size it becomes hard 

 and solid, and exhibits but little pain or tenderness unless, as frequently 

 happens, it is contused, when it may inflame and develop an abscess. In 

 some instances these excrescences are allowed to reach a considerable size 



Fig. 384.— Capped Elbow 



