~446 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
“4s evidently good only for animals which are not meny ee 
. immovable bandages are preferable. ots ere 
Vill.— Patella. 
‘ 
or g J 
Lafosse, Renault, Lenck, Goubaux, Andtieu have related interesting 
- cases of fractures of the patella. They aré due to traumatisms or muscu- 
lar contraction. Lafosse thought that transversal fractures only were pos- 
-sible, but the observations of Lenck and Goubaux have proved the exis- 
tence of longitudinal injuries. In both varieties, the accident ‘may -be 
‘simple or complicated ; it is always accompanied with’ inflammation of 
the femoro-pateéllar, synovial and sometimes with femoro-tibial ‘arthritis. 
It is on this’ account that Lafosse, d’Arboral: and Goubaux erroneously 
“thought that those fractures were incurable. 
In the case of Lenck, the separation of the fractured segments was con- 
siderable. On the pieces that Gotibaux dissected, he has never observed 
‘separation of the fragments. If the fracture is transversal, a piece of the 
‘bone may be drawn upwards; but when it is longitudinal the separation 
“is ordinarily very small; the fibrous coverings which are over the an- 
“terior face of the patella hold the fragments in piace. 
With a closed fracture, pitched immovable bandages, made with bands 
~ placed above and below the patella, then crossed over the lateral faces of: 
‘the region, or simply repeated blistering applications, are used; Delwart 
recommends two methods, which proved very good with him; with one, the, 
horse is kept perfectly at rest for fifteen or twenty days, with his leg held 
. slightly forward by a rope; with the other, an immovable bandage is 
applied over the whole region. 
Andrieu has obtained the recovery of an open fracture. Toward the mid- 
dle of the patella, there was a wound allowing the introduction of the finger, 
-which could feel the fracture of the bone in three pieces; this wound 
--opened in the patella sheath, and from it synovia escaped. Notwith-' 
standing the severity of the lesion, treatment was undertaken with con- 
tinued irrigation. After two weeks, walking exercise was begun; after 
“a month all treatment was stopped, and the animal put to light work ; 
-a month later there remained but very little lameness in trotting.’ 
With open fracture of the patella, a fenestrated bandage with frequent 
antiseptic injections in the wound is the treatment to be recommended. 
1A fracture of the patella is recorded by J. C. Meyer in which ligamentous union had 
‘taken place between the fragments of the bone, which at the post-mortem had been 
found, the external piece articulated with the external lateral surface of the femur, 
.and the internal was resting in the fossa between the trochlea and the inner condyle. 
—American Veterinary Review, Vol. 6, p. 239: 
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