A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 2 : $b General diseases (continued) and diseases of the digestive system
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 2 : $b General diseases (continued) and diseases of the digestive system
Medicine -- Practice
2. Pleurodynia, myalgia pectoralis or intercostalis. Here the affected
muscles are the intercostals, and in some cases the pectorals as well.
Spasmodic pain is felt in one or other side of the chest, and is
especially aggravated by the movements of respiration; it is rendered
intense by the efforts of coughing or sneezing. Pleurodynia may be
confounded with pleurisy, the distinguishing features being the absence
of fever and the friction sound of pleurisy. Intercostal neuralgia is
sometimes with difficulty known from pleurodynia, but in the former the
pain is more circumscribed, more paroxysmal, and more easily aggravated
by pressure than in pleurodynia, and when severe there are tender
points in the course of the nerve a little outside of the middle line
posteriorly (dorsal point) and anteriorly (sternal point). Now and then
the hyperæsthetic {78} areas become anæsthetic, and even patches of
herpes may form in the course of the nerve, when doubt can no longer
remain. From periostitis of a rib pleurodynia may be known by the fact
that in the one the tenderness is marked in the intercostal space, and
in the other in the rib itself. Pleurodynia is a frequent accompaniment
of thoracic affections, causing cough, the frequent paroxysms of
coughing tending to induce a painful state of the overworked muscles.
The pain, which may be very great, can often be controlled by fixing
the chest with imbricated plaster or a firm bandage. Dry cups sometimes
answer very well; if more active measures are necessary, then
hypodermic injections of morphia must be resorted to.
3. Torticollis, myalgia cervicalis, stiff neck or wry neck, caput
obstipum. This term includes those cases of rheumatic idiopathic
affection of one or more of the muscles of the side and nape of the
neck, which fixes the head firmly in the median line or else in a
twisted fashion, with the face turned toward the sound side. The
disease can be recognized at a glance by the peculiar manner in which a
person will turn his whole body round instead of rotating his head
alone. It is much more common in children than in adults. The
sterno-mastoid is the muscle chiefly affected, but any of the muscles
of the neck may become rheumatic in the same way, and frequently
several of them suffer at the same time. The most important point at
the outset of an attack of wry neck is to determine whether we have to
do with a true rheumatic (idiopathic) disorder, or whether the muscular
stiffness is secondary to some spinal or vertebral lesion. The
diagnosis is usually founded upon the suddenness of the onset, the
absence of other symptoms of nerve disease, and the rapid course of the
case, terminating in a cure in a few days. There is nothing special in
the treatment of torticollis beyond what has been already said under
the general heading.
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