The Farmington times and herald. (Farmington, St. Francois Co., Mo.) 1902-1905, 1903-01-08
DR.. LoRENz AND DR.. STILL coNTRAsTED.
Oesteopathy, the American System of "Boodless Sur
gerry Far in Advance of the Much
Lauded Austrian Method.


death. II merely causes a lifelong
suffering. say | performed 800 OF
these operations before began to
think that | was on the wrong path
| began to wonder if Nature had not
provided some means 10 assist these
little sufferers, who hand been brought
into this world without the proper ar
ticulstion Of their hip joints The u'e
Of the knife had given me an under.
standing of the muscles, the ligamGnts
and bones.
FINALLY decided would try the
new method, which wa are uow de-.
scribing as bloodless surgery. took
many weeks for study and then tried
It. The condition Of the child dc.
formity was much the same as wa
tho first one ! operated on, But
went al the operation without a knife
| knew that the contracted muscles
would have to be stretched or torn, II
was at first frightened at the strength
it took to do the work that tho knife
had done. Yet | had decided that
force should be my instrument. had
to tear the tissues OF the shortened
| muscles. The limb nj first resisting
all my efforts finally became pliable.
foudd that could stretch the mus.
Gle. a great DEAL but when they would
! net sirntch | would have to tear them
"Fioily the little leg WAS brought
int is normal position. But, as in
! my first case, the head Of the femur
! would not fit the hip cavity. Under
the "bloody method" had gougcd
cut that cavity with kriic. could
not de that now. SO took that thigh
bone and by main force | bored it into
tho cavity. This was sh-llow aud of
insufficient depth To admit Of the
whole of the ball of the fcmur. |
found that when the leg was at right
angles with tho body the head Of the
thigh bone would hold close into the
socket, hut that when placed the
leg in its nsrm,l position the bail
would slip out The socket WAS too
shallow to hold it SO placed the leg
10 that position in which the ball Of The
femur fitted most accurately into the
cavity. Then bound it and made it
rigid With = plaster Of paris cast As
soon as the soreness Of the torn muscles
and stretched ligsmenls had disappear
ed | encouraged the child to walk. An
iron silt had To be placed on the sole
of the little ones shoe and with the
thigh of her leg held by the plaster Of
paris At the right angles with her body
she wsiked about for five months
mature in the mesntima had been
performing tho operation had once
done with all instrument The hip
socket through the constant pressure
of the childs weight had been deepen.
ing. The outer ridge of bony tissues
had been spreading across the ball Of
the thigh bone and forming n Joint
such as the normal child has Finally
removed the plaster cast. As had
expected | found that the leg remain
ed in the same position a. il was be.
fore | removed the cast Gradually
| With little outside assistance il came
around in its correct position and two
years afterwards that child did not
oven limp, Since then have per
! formed moro than one thousand of
these blooiless operations for congcn-
I ital hip disorders. There are no dan
gers accompanying the operation
, Parents are not fearful Of submitting
their children to the operating table.
There is no blood poisoning or infcc-
ton Of any kind. In fact, no deaths
resulted This new method is far
, moro successful than the old one.
have never had case in which | did
not benefit the sufferer, although many
in after years have walked lame.
Moro have been completely healed
however
1.-Two cases are never exactly alike,
and the msnipulstions must ffer as-
cordingly. Generally speaking, the
muscles, the lgamcnts and the tcndons
must be brought into a normal posi-.
ton even il the tearing of the tissues
becomes necessary; the head of the
femur bone must be placed in its cor.
rect position in the socket and the leg
must be held in that position until
nature has had chance To d. its
work. "
So much for the doctors own story
This characteristic features Of this
Austrian bloodless method nre that it
employs an anaesthetic; it use. force
to tear the tissues out Of the way and
permit the hip bone going back into
its socket; and il hold. the limb IN !
place from six to nine months with
plaster cast after re.setting
Osteopsthy is just that much more
clever than the Lorenz method that it |
does none Of these things Instead Of
An anaeslhetic which is used bv DR. !
Lorcnz to relax all muscles and liga-
msnts for the operation, rather than
deadsn pain, the Osteopsth through |
weeks and months, in the average hip :
case, applies passive motion (Which is
net usually painfully in such way as
to overcome all abnormal contrac,ion>
Of tissue, to make them again soft,
plisblo and yielding; and little at
time to sccustom the wandering hip |
bone to rctrace its pathway, so that AT
the time of the final operation, there is
no tearing Of adjacent structures nee
essary. Ostcopathy does not require
a plaster cast to hold the hip bone in
ito socket, If the socket has fully
formed. Once hip has been set by
this method ali the muscles and liga-
men,s have previously been brought
into normal condition and tension or
else the dislocstion is not yet over
come. There is then nothing, short