Yearbook (Volume 26)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1917. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... TRAUMATIC HERNIA, SO-CALLED, AMONG RAILWAY EMPLOYES. Dr. C. W. Hopkins, CHICAGO, ILL. In the discussion of Traumatic Hernia, the inguinal type being the most common, we at once assume that indirect inguinal hernia is what is meant, when the subject is presented. This is the type of hernia that is giving us all more and more concern, by the increasing number of claims of injury that are presented to us by a certain class. There perhaps has been no time in the history of railway surgery when so many claims have been made on account of alleged Traumatic Hernia as right at the present, and there is seldom a time when a railway company is not taking care of a score of so-called Traumatic Hernia cases among their employes and patrons. Willing as the company is to do justice to these cases, the interesting standpoint to them lies in the prevention of fraud, and abuse of their good will. It is not my intention to consider any of the conditions which involve a loss, destruction or solution of continuity of the tissues of the abdominal wall where there is prima fascia evidence of a traumatic lesion, but to limit this discussion to the consideration of the most common hernia, the oblique inguinal. When I term the oblique inguinal the most common, it is based upon the observations of Professor Paul Berger, who in thirteen thousand four hundred and eighty-three hernia;, found twelve thousand two hundred and eighty-three of this type. If you will refer to some of the older writers, especially the German, you will find that they consider true Traumatic Hernia to be one of the rarest conditions to be met in emergency surgery. The chief surgeon of the German Bureau of Labor, has written a book on the workings of that society or association of trades, in which they have made exhaus...