330 Surgical Diseases and Surgery of the Dog 



cranial vault. Part of the muscular tissue covering the skull was 

 dissected and the splinters (sixteen in number) were removed, some 

 of them having to be loosened from the dura. Sharp projections 

 remaining were smoothed, the wound treated with carbolized oil 

 and the skin sewed up. Immediately after the operation the dog 

 recovered consciousness and evinced a desire to run about. In three 

 weeks the wound had healed but the parts remained soft underneath. 

 There was no permanent disturbance of mental function. 



Fractures of the basal bones are invariably fatal either from 

 severe concussion or laceration of brain tissue, or rupture of intra- 

 cranial vessels with formation of blood-clots in consequence of which 

 compression of the vital centers takes place resulting in their para- 

 lysis. In these cases the onset of the symptoms may be gradual 

 though the animal may be at first rendered temporarily unconscious 

 from concussion. 



In addition to well-defined examples of fracture the practitioner 

 may be confronted with obscure cases of injury in which there is 

 good reason to believe that the main lesion consists solely of con- 

 cussion and which completely recover in a very short while. Among 

 the symptoms are : total loss of consciousness, inability to coordinate 

 movements, weakened pulse, and occasional vomiting. 



Treatment. This is varied according to the presence or absence 

 of intracranial complications. Simple fractures require but local 

 treatment of any parenchymatous contusion and removal of bone 

 splinters, the rest being left to natural processes of repair. In pene- 

 trating wounds the chief danger consists in the liability to septic 

 inflammation. Accordingly, antisepsis must be maintained until 

 recovery. It may be found advisable to trephine for purposes of 

 ample disinfection, removing the portion of bone which has sus- 

 tained the perforation. Unless there be absence of any brain dis- 

 turbance depressed fractures should always be remedied by surgical 

 interference. If this cannot be accomplished in a simple manner 

 the skull must be trephined close to the depression, and in the hole 

 thus made a suitable instrument introduced to elevate the depressed 

 portion of bone. 



Compound cases are treated by antisepsis. 



Comminuted cases with loss of substance may be treated on 

 the plan outlined by Uebelen, but unless the periosteum is preserved 

 no true ossific regeneration can take place, the open space becoming 



