Part 11

Affections of the membranes, ligaments, and bones, often occur in persons of weak constitutions, and proceed very gradually. They have been all classed under the general term of white swelling. They most frequently present themselves without any assignable cause, or are attributed to the slightest injuries. The disease generally commences in the cancellated texture of the bones: these are soft and light, and contain in their cells a quantity of caseous or tubercular matter. The softness is attributable to an interstitial atrophy of the bony tissue, as well as to an alteration in the proportion of its constituents; the animal matter being in excess, with a corresponding deficiency of the phosphate of lime. There is an increased vascularity of the medullary membrane, and the cancellated texture contains thin brownish-looking fluid instead of marrow. In cases of disease which has commenced in the cancellated texture, there is hardly any pain at first, and the progress of the disease is remarkably insidious. When the lower extremity is affected, the child is observed to limp; the limb wastes; it appears to be longer, partly from atrophy of the muscles, partly from relaxation of the ligaments and effusion into the joint.

The term white-swelling, which ought to be discarded from surgery, was at one time made to include all the different affections to which joints are liable in weak constitutions—thickening of the parts, with an external colourless swelling—collections of matter about articulations, with or without an external aperture—effusion of fluids into the cavities of joints, or into the bursæ—destruction of cartilage by ulceration, or in consequence of portions becoming dead—absorption, ulceration, caries, or intractable ulceration of the bone adjoining the articulation.

Those under twenty years of age are most liable to chronic affections of the joints, and they occur very frequently in children. Great anxiety is often shown by friends of patients to account for chronic disease of a joint, so as to save their whole generation from the imputation of being tainted with scrofula. It is attributed, sometimes correctly enough, to some injury perhaps trifling; to a sprain, or twist, or squeeze from a tight shoe, or to a bruise from falling; and it is no doubt true, that young or old people of the most healthy constitutions, if thrown out of health from one cause, will present all the appearances of scrofula, and become affected with chronic diseases of the mucous membranes, glands, joints, or bones, from very slight existing causes.

Such affections advance slowly; all the articulations are liable to them; but those which are most subject to the disease are the hip, knee, ankle, and elbow. Of these, the knee-joint is most frequently affected, probably from the greater extent of cancellated and articulating surface. In young persons of unhealthy constitutions, the joints not unfrequently become affected one after another, and superficial abscesses form, terminating in open sores. I was obliged to amputate the upper extremity of a young lady a few days ago, in which a metacarpal bone and its articulation, the entire chain of carpal bones, the wrist and elbow joints, were all thoroughly involved in disease.

NEURALGIC AFFECTIONS OF JOINTS.

The joints, like other parts of the body, are very often the seat of painful affections, without organic disease existing. These neuralgic affections are often connected with, or followed by, hysterical symptoms. They frequently also depend upon derangement of the digestive organs,—upon the lodgement of irritating matters, sordes, or worms in the intestinal tube; and when we reflect upon the extent of the lining membrane, the expansion of nervous filaments, and upon the sympathy which they hold with the whole system, we cannot be astonished at the circumstance. Many cases of supposed hip-disease in children, with the symptoms and some of the signs of it, have come under my notice, which have yielded at once to the expulsion of offending matters or worms. Some affections of joints seem to depend upon gouty diathesis; others are intermittent: at one time the joint complained of is hot, and somewhat swollen; at another cold, and bluish on the surface. In these affections of joints the pain, indeed, is seldom constant: the patient’s rest is not broken; there are none of the violent spasms during sleep, which attend upon certain alterations of structure. The pain is equally complained of when the part is touched with the utmost gentleness, or when a thorough and searching examination is made, when the joint is freely moved, and the articulating surfaces of the bones are forcibly squeezed against each other. The pinching of the skin causes pain. There is seldom throbbing, or heat, or swelling; though, after long continuance of the diseased state, these may supervene to a slight extent. The pain complained of is seldom referred to one point, but to a large extent of the limb; and if the attention is diverted, the examination may be carried to any extent, without complaint being made.

Sir B. Brodie, who has done a great service to the profession by directing attention to these nervous affections in his excellent work, and in his lectures, notices that the knee, when the seat of pain, is generally kept in the extended position, and this is very different from what has been stated to be the position of one affected by organic disease. The tumefaction following upon local treatment, and especially when leeching and counter-irritants have been employed, is sometimes, as he remarks, very perplexing.

This class of diseases generally affects females of delicate organisation about the age of puberty, and in whom the menstruation is irregular. Males in delicate health are also subject to similar affections.

ON GROWTHS FROM THE SYNOVIAL MEMBRANE, AND LOOSE SUBSTANCES IN THE JOINTS.

The synovial membrane is sometimes studded on its inner aspect with loose fleshy or semicartilaginous substances projecting into the cavity of the joint. The entire surface of the membrane is occasionally covered with these bodies, which are of a white or yellowish colour, and very variable in size and shape; the smallest presenting the form of villi not much larger than those of the jejunum, the largest having somewhat the magnitude and appearance of the appendices epiploicæ of the large intestine, while many of an intermediate size approach in appearance to a lemon-seed. In some instances the membrane is only partially pervaded by them, and they are not unfrequently arranged like a fringe around the edge of the articular surfaces. They are generally very smooth on the surface, which appears to be perfectly continuous, if not identical, with the synovial membrane. Their attachment is frequently broad, and occasionally very narrow and pedunculated, often merely filamentous, so that a little further thinning of the part, or slight force acting on the body, would remove it from the capsule, and throw it loose into the cavity of the articulation. The disease has been most frequently seen in the knee, and sometimes in the elbow.

The affection is obscure in its nature; it is slow in its progress; the joint is the seat of pain after and during exercise, probably from the morbid processes interfering with the motions of the articular surfaces. As the disease advances, the joint becomes swelled and elastic, unattended generally by ulceration of the tissues within or around it. In examining the part, when the articular surfaces are moved on each other, it will be found that their motion is more or less interfered with; and considerable irregularity in their action may be felt by the hand placed firmly on the joint during the procedure.

Loose bodies may be found in the articulations, particularly in the knee and elbow, under the circumstances just described; but we often find others of a different structure loose within the capsule, which may be throughout smooth and apparently healthy. These bodies are extremely variable in size, generally rounded or oval, with a polished surface; many of the smallest present the character of fibro-cartilage or cartilage; the larger are often more or less modulated, very firm and gristly, and sometimes contain a considerable nucleus of bony matter. The articular ends of the bones are occasionally more or less misshapen by the formation around them of knobs of adventitious osseous substance.

The disease is common in the knee; and patients frequently go about for years, who will tell you that they have something rolling within the joint, which will often be found on examination to be actually the case. It is obvious that loose bodies in the joint must prove an obstacle to easy progression; and the smaller ones seem to be particularly so, probably from becoming easily entangled by different parts of the articular apparatus.

However difficult it may be to account for the cause of these formations, the means by which they may get within the articulation seems obvious enough. If a small knob of coagulated lymph should form on the inner aspect of the membrane, the point of attachment, as has already been noticed, might gradually become narrower, from the motions of the joint or other causes, till the connection were severed. But there is reason to believe that many of the substances found loose in the joints are formed altogether in the cellular tissue without the capsule; for it is difficult to conceive that they can increase in size, or take on the ossific action in their centre, by an act of independent vitality, after they have been separated from the surrounding parts. Accordingly, dissection has occasionally disclosed loose bodies within the knee-joint, and others of just the same structure outside the synovial membrane, which was however protruded by their pressure, and appeared to connect some of them by a pedicle only, ready to break and allow the foreign body, with its covering of the membrane, to fall into the cavity of the articulation.

AFFECTIONS OF SYNOVIAL POUCHES OR BURSÆ.

Bursæ are lined by a membrane, greatly resembling the synovial in appearance, function, and disease. They are frequently the seat of inflammation of an acute character; but in most instances the action is of short duration, and generally terminates in an increase and accumulation of the secreted fluid. The attendant pain is very severe, and much increased by any motion of the neighbouring parts.

Occasionally a portion of the cellular substance, which is exposed to pressure of motion, as over a prominent portion of bone, assumes the appearance of a bursa, secretes a similar fluid, and is similarly affected in consequence of inflammation. These adventitious bursæ are met with in various situations. Bunion is a good example of such a bursa thickened from long-continued pressure. They are seen on the outer ankles of tailors, on the shins of boot-closers, on the forehead, point of the elbow, &c.

Disease of the bursæ may occur from external injury, and they often become affected subsequently to disease of the neighbouring joint. If the action is violent, lymph is effused on the inner surface, or external to its cavity, causing considerable thickening. The sac is thus sometimes all but obliterated. Tumours, originally housemaid’s knee, aggravated by continued pressure, are met with over the ligament of the patella in almost a solid state. Occasionally the action terminates in suppuration, pus being effused to a greater or less extent into the cavity; and if allowed to remain or accumulate, the abscess extends, and frequently communicates with the neighbouring joint, which may not have been previously diseased. In chronic cases of enlarged bursæ, especially of the bursal thecæ of the tendons of the wrist or ankle, we not unfrequently meet with loose cartilaginous bodies of various sizes, and of a flattened oval form, floating in the accumulated fluid. These have been also supposed to be formed by portions of lymph which have been deposited on the surface, condensed in structure, and afterwards become detached.

When inflammatory action has commenced in a bursa, it must be subdued by copious topical bleeding, along with the exhibition of purgatives; in most cases general bloodletting will not be required. After the inflammation has subsided, the parts remain swollen, from the effusion either of serum or lymph; stimulating applications may then be employed with advantage. In general, the ammoniacal plaster, or the brushing over the surface with tincture of iodine will answer. Blisters are sometimes employed with the same view. In obstinate cases, when the tumour is of no large size, a seton may be passed, retained till suppuration has taken place, and gradually withdrawn. Great risk attends interference with bursæ of large size near joints or cysts containing serous or glairy fluid in any situation. Even trifling punctures into such have been sometimes followed by inflammation of the inner secreting surface and violent constitutional disturbance. When suppuration has occurred, it will in many instances be prudent to evacuate the matter by one or more incisions, in order to prevent farther mischief, especially if the bursa, a superficial one, is in the neighbourhood of a joint. After the matter has been evacuated, the cavity gradually contracts, and ultimately the bursa is completely obliterated. Diseased bursæ, near the surface, and unconnected with important parts, have been dissected out. The operation is not often necessary, and in some situations attended with considerable risk. Tumours, solid or nearly so, arising from diseased bursa of long standing, may sometimes require to be so treated.

OF COXALGIA, MORBUS COXARIUS, OR HIP-JOINT DISEASE.

This disease has been supposed to commence in the cartilages; it appears, however, to originate indiscriminately in the cartilage and the bone, as well as in the membrane lining the capsule and investing the cartilage and the ligaments; but whether it begins in one or other of these tissues, it soon, if neglected, involves them all. It affects patients of all ages, though children under twelve are most generally its victims; and in these it often makes considerable progress without its existence being suspected. The patient is observed to be a little lame, and to be awkward in the use of the affected limb, but he experiences little or no pain in the first instance; and if he does, it is of a dull kind, and generally referred to other parts. Thus, pain in the knee is generally the prominent symptom of this affection, and occasionally pain is also referred to the ankle, or to the sole of the foot: careful study and considerable experience are here required, to guard the young practitioner from error in diagnosis. Parts remote from the seat of morbid action have often been made the subject of treatment in this and other affections; the knee, in morbus coxarius, has been leeched, poulticed, blistered, and burnt, and that, too, when this joint was not at all altered in appearance, and showed no symptom of disease.

Again, and particularly in adults, the limb is easy only in certain positions, and cannot be moved without great suffering; pain is also complained of in the groin, and often immediately behind the trochanter major. If an examination is made when the patient is thus halting, and even though he complains of no pain, the limb is found shrunk, wasted, and lengthened. The elongation of the limb occurs mainly in consequence of the inclination of the pelvis towards that side. When the disease has made progress, it has been supposed that swelling of the apparatus of the joint, and effusion into its cavity, might separate the head of the bone from the acetabulum, when pressure from the trunk was not applied. The lengthening is often great, and its extent and cause are ascertained by accurate comparison of the two limbs, laid in contact when the patient is in the recumbent posture.

The degree of lengthening is here carefully represented from a recent case. But occasionally, even in the first stage, before destructive ulceration has set in, in consequence of the pain and spasms, the limb becomes remarkably shortened and retracted. This also will be found, on careful examination, to depend upon the relative positions of the two ossa innominata.

When the patient stands, the affected limb is considerably advanced before the other, on which the weight of the trunk is chiefly, or entirely, supported; the knee is generally bent, and the toes only rest on the ground. In the advanced stages of the disease, and when there is reason to suppose that ulceration of the cartilages has set in, the patient, during progression, moves the affected limb with the hands grasped round the thigh, and in bed it is moved by the aid of the sound one. The spine is frequently affected, becoming bent in different directions, to preserve the equilibrium of the body; and a deformity of the trunk to a certain degree occurs, which, however, may be in general easily remedied. The nates are much altered; they become flattened, and those parts which are naturally most prominent are reduced to the level of the others; the usual niche between the buttock and thigh, in the erect position, is effaced, and the upper part of the thigh is often considerably swollen. The alteration is at once manifest on contrasting the healthy with the diseased side. Even from the first, locomotion is difficult: in the morning, the movements of the joint are constrained and stiff; afterwards, however, the patient walks with more ease, though still by very slight exertion the limb is speedily tired, and he is unwilling to use it. Pain is produced by pressing on the groin, or by tapping on the trochanter, and by pushing the head of the femur forcibly against the acetabulum. The inguinal glands occasionally become enlarged. As the disease advances, the lameness is more apparent; pain is produced and increased by motion, and by any attempt to stretch, and more especially to abduct the limb whilst in the recumbent posture. The emaciation of the member becomes more and more visible. The muscles, as it were, are paralysed from inaction and pain, abscesses form, and the constitution then sympathises remarkably; hectic fever supervenes, with its usual train of symptoms.

The circumstances attending the first stage of the disease in childhood, in which the limb is lengthened, and there is no decrease, but rather an enlargement of the parts composing the joint, have been already described and illustrated. When, however, absorption occurs, and the articulation begins to be destroyed, the second stage of the disease commences, and the limb becomes then sensibly shortened; the toes are turned inwards or outwards; in many cases there is every appearance of dislocation of the thigh upward and backward; and in others the limb is much bent, the toes only reaching the ground. The ultimate position of the limb and degree of shortening will depend much upon the extent to which the head and neck of the femur is destroyed, upon the inclination of the pelvis, and also upon the portion of the acetabulum which is most diseased. The joint becomes tender, the slightest motion causing much pain, and the parts around appear swollen. The patient retains the limb in the most comfortable position, and it is generally bent upon the pelvis and inverted. This may arise from relief being afforded when the psoas is relaxed, and the pressure thus removed from the fore part of the joint. In many cases matter forms behind, or rather below, the trochanter major, and the collection often attains a large size. When the presence of matter has been ascertained in this situation, it has been recommended that an early opening should be made, on the supposition that the disease arises from an acrimonious discharge into and round the joint, and that, by the matter being allowed to escape, the cause of the disease may be removed. The synovia has been compared by one old author to bland oil, the vitiated secretion to oil of vitriol. Though the principle is incorrect, still the rule of practice is important; for in consequence of the long-continued presence of matter, accumulating in a cavity which is not dilatable in proportion to the increase of purulent secretion, the original affection will be much aggravated, and disease induced in the neighbouring parts. But the existence of matter in the joint could only be ascertained to exist in a very emaciated person.

The formation of matter is preceded by great pain, and frequent startings of the limb during sleep, accompanied with fever, and other symptoms of severe constitutional disturbance. On the escape of matter by the natural process from the capsule the painful feelings usually subside. The abscess may appear, as already stated, near the trochanter major, or in the back part of the thigh. Matter sometimes makes its way into the pelvis, through a perforation in the acetabulum, thence it may fall through the sacro-ischiatic notch into the thigh, and find its way under the fascia, nearly to the knee; or again, it may present to the side of the rectum, or even, as I have seen, burst into the bowel and continue to be discharged thus for a long period. If the treatment is neglected, abscess succeeds abscess; and in consequence of the profuse discharge, which may be evacuated from one or many openings round the joint, the patient is at length exhausted, and sinks. In some instances the spontaneous cure by anchylosis occurs, as in the instances from which these sketches are taken. In the one, the head and neck of the bone had been almost entirely destroyed by ulceration, before anchylosis had begun; in the other, the change is very slight, but the head of the femur and os innominatum are inseparably united by bone, and their cancellated texture runs into each other. Or when the femur has been dislocated, which is a very rare occurrence, the disease sometimes gradually abates, and a sort of new joint is formed; the limb, after some time, may thus again become so far useful to the patient.

In many cases, the appearance which the various parts of the diseased joint present, are similar to those which have been already described when treating of affections of the joints generally. Frequently, however, the osseous tissue in this situation is much more extensively affected. Often the whole cartilage on the head of the femur is completely removed, exposing the bone in an ulcerated condition; and when the system has long borne up under the disease, the greater portion of the head, neck, and even of the trochanter, is destroyed, the extremity of the bone being completely altered in form, and composed of a loose and spongy structure. A similar disorganisation occurs in the acetabulum; the mucous gland is destroyed, the cartilage is often wholly removed, and the margins of the acetabulum absorbed, a large and flat ulcerated depression merely being left for the reception of the diseased femur; in other instances the margins remain unaffected, whilst the ulceration proceeds in the centre, and the cavity is thereby much deepened. Not unfrequently the ulceration proceeds farther, and an aperture is formed in the acetabulum, so that matter accumulates within the pelvis. The opening is sometimes so large that the femur is protruded through it. When matter has formed in the soft parts round the joint, portions of the bones of the pelvis, in contact with the pus, are ulcerated to a greater or less extent, and sometimes these ulcers are surrounded by deposits of new bony matter.