Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900: Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small CalibreMakins, George Henry
History
Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900: Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre
Makins, George Henry
Gunshot wounds; South African War, 1899-1902; Surgery, Military
In some cases of gutter fracture the wounds of entry were large and
irregular, as a result of upward splintering of the bone at the distal
margin of the aperture of entry in the skull, and consequent laceration
of the scalp. Again, on the forehead very pure types of slit exit wound
were often met with in the position of the vertical or horizontal
creases. With higher degrees of velocity on the part of the bullet and
consequent comminution at the aperture of exit in the bone, the scalp
was more extensively lacerated, and large irregular openings in the soft
parts, often occupied by fragments of bone and brain pulp, were met
with. It is well to repeat here, however, that the presence of brain
pulp in a wound by no means necessarily indicated the aperture of exit,
for it was sometimes found in the entry opening also.
In the most severe cases, such as are included in class I., the exit
wound often possessed in the highest degree the so-called 'explosive'
character. From an opening in the skin with everted margins two or more
inches in diameter a mass of brain debris, bone fragments and particles
of dura-mater, skin, and hair, bound together by coagulated blood,
protruded as a primary hernia cerebri if the patient survived the first
few hours after the injury. In other cases of the same class the actual
opening was smaller, but the whole scalp was swollen and oedematous,
sometimes crackling when touched from the presence of extravasated blood
in the cellular tissue, while firm palpation often gave the impression
that the head consisted of a bag of bones over a considerable area.
Gutter fractures of the scalp were sometimes situated beneath an open
furrow, gaping from loss of substance, or beneath a bridge of skin; in
the latter case they were usually palpable. Simple punctures were also
usually palpable, but the smallness of the openings sometimes rendered
their detection more difficult than might be assumed.
I never saw a case in which the skull escaped injury when the bullet
struck the scalp at right angles, but the frequency with which Mauser
bullets were found within the helmets of men would suggest that this
must have sometimes occurred. A case of injury to the external table
alone has been described (p. 243). An illustration of the next degree of
injury is afforded by the following:--A bullet lodged in the centre of
the forehead, the point lying within the cranial cavity, while the base
projected from the surface: this patient suffered but slight immediate
trouble, so little, indeed, that he merely asked his officer to remove
the bullet for him, as it was inconvenient. The bullet was subsequently
removed in the Field hospital.
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