HYDARTHROSIS, 55Q» 
Potain the serous is more completely emptied. The synovia returns. 
rapidly, but ordinarily in less quantity ; successes have been obtained 
with simple repeated punctures. However, in the majority of cases, 
puncture is completed by compression, blistering, cauterization or modi- 
fying injections. We generally add to it the lines or deep points firing, . 
according to the seat and dimensions of the hydarthrosis. 
To change the condition of the synovial, it has been injected with | 
various fluids. For a lgng time, the operation has seemed most dan- - 
gerous. Bouley said: “Knowing the alterations, often irretrievable, 
that the inflammation may produce when it occurs in those parts, spe- 
cially after a traumatic lesion, it is difficult to believe that injections, no - 
matter of what nature and how carefully they may be made, would 
give rise to an inflammation limited only to the necessary degree 
required to modify the secretion of the synovial membrane and still 
remain unable to alter the structure of the parts.” We will not give the 
technic of the operation; it is already done. (See Dropsies of Tendinous - 
Synovials). Among the agents used, tincture of iodine is the most in, 
vogue. Leblanc and Thierry, after experimenting with it on animals 
and having obtained good results, recommended the injection of tincture 
of iodine to the third (tincture 1 part, water 2), for hydarthrosis as well 
as for tendinous sheaths. Serious accidents were soon recorded in 
Alfort, by Bouley ; at Lyon, by Rey; at Toulouse, by Lafosse, then by a 
number of practitioners. ‘These unfortunate results caused the iodine 
injection for the treatment of hydarthrosis to be put aside; but they 
took place at the time when asepsy was ignored. With it, the method 
succeeds. 
Schede has made known the first successes obtained in man by the - 
articular washings with strong phenic acid. Many surgeons who employ 
‘this method have found it excellent, and the operation of Sclede has 
received its “clinical consecration.” The following observation of” 
Labbé deserves to be mentioned. A man thirty-one years old suffered 
for seven years with hydarthrosis of the knee. When the author was . 
called, the articulation was enormous, distended by a great quantity of 
fluid; the muscles of the thigh were much atrophied. Puncture was . 
made with a large hydrocele trocar; 4 liters of phenicated water, 5 p. 
100, were used to wash the joint thoroughly; the puncture was closed 
with collodion taffetas and the joint wrapped in a thick wadded bandage, 
tighly applied; the whole leg was held in immobility. Eighteen days. 
-Jater, “ the knee had resumed its normal aspect. The outlines of the joint . 
were as well marked as those of the healthy articulation, a condition. 
‘which had not existed for seven years.” 
Sometimes a trocar of some large dimension has to be used to permit: 
