1+2/2010 - Společnost pro pojivové tkáně

clearly recognisable as the basis of our currentapproach to the patient. It has beenfollowed in unbroken succession throughHippocrates (some two millennia later),Galen on to the doctor of to day. Someexamples of these cases are sited here.Case 25:Treatment of a dislocated jaw: “… thoushouldst put thy thumbs, upon the ends ofthe two rami of the mandible in the insideof his mouth, and thy two claws (the otherfingers) under his chin, and thou shouldstcause them to fall back so that they rest intheir place”.Case 31:Traumatic quadreplegia: “If thou examinesta man having dislocation in a vertebraof his neck, shouldst thou find him unconsciousof his two arms and his two legs onaccount of it, while his phallus is erectedon account of it and urine drops from hismember without his knowing it … it is a dislocationof a vertebra of neck extendingto his back-bone which causes him to beunconscious of his two arms and two legs…, an ailment not to be treated.”Case 35:Fig. 1: Splints of wood padded with vegetablefibres, surrounding a broken femur. AnatomyMuseum, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.Fracture of the clavicle “If thou examinesta man having a break in his collarbone and shouldst thou find his collarbone short and separated from its fellow.I will treat. Place him prostrate on hisback with something folded between hisshoulder blades; thou shouldst spread outwith his two shoulders to stretch apart hiscollar bone until break falls in its place”(Fig. 4).The ancient Egyptian surgeon has evidentlypracticed autopsy. He describeda case of closed fracture dislocation of thecervical spine as a vertebra “sinking intothe interior of the neck as the foot settles incultivated soil”, one vertebra is said to “penetrateinto the other”. He could distinguish14LOCOMOTOR SYSTEM vol. 17, 2010, No. 1+2