Part 48
In bandaging, the head of the first bandage should be placed at the
seat of the injury, whether it be a case of fracture, of dislocation,
or of diastasis (
separation?), and the first turns should be made
there, and the bandages should be applied most firmly at that place,
and less so on either side. The bandaging should comprehend both the
arm and the fore-arm, and on both should be to a much greater extent
than most physicians apply it, so that the swelling may be expelled
from the seat of the injury to either side. And point of the fore-arm
should be comprehended in the bandaging, whether the injury be in
that place or not, in order that the swelling may not collect there.
In applying bandages, we must avoid as much as possible accumulating
many turns of the bandage at the bend of the arm. For the principal
compression should be at the seat of the injury, and the same rules
are to be observed, and at the same periods, with regard to compression
and relaxation, as formerly described respecting the treatment of
broken bones; and the bandages should be renewed every third day;
and they should appear
[p. 209] loose on the third day, as in the other case.
And splints should be applied at the proper time (for there is nothing
unsuitable in them, whether the bones be fractured or not, provided
there is no fever); they should be particularly loose, whether applied
to the arm or the forearm, but they must not be thick. It is necessary
that they should be of unequal size, and that the one should ride
over the other, whenever from the flexion it is judged proper. And
the application of the compresses should be regulated in the same
manner as has been stated with regard to the splints; and they should
be put on in a somewhat more bulky form at the seat of the injury.
The periods are to be estimated from the inflammation, and from what
has been written on them above.
