Effects of maceration and drying upon the vertebral column

✍ Scribed by T. Wingate Todd; S. Idell Pyle

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1928
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 759 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9483
• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330120210

✦ Synopsis

INTRODUCTION AND METHODS

Detailed and accurate measurement of defect is more important in dealing with disability in the vertebral column than in treatment of any other part of the skeleton. But as the bones of the column are, for the most part, deeply placed in the body, the only practicable method of obtaining information is the roentgenogram. To derive dimensions of the actual vertebral bodies from measurements on the roentgenogram is our chief aim. But since we may study the column itself, as a rule, only upon the dried macerated skeleton it is equally necessary to discover the relation of the macerated dimensioiis to those of the fresh or 'green' bones. The senior author has already set forth in detail the shrinkage in skull dimensions consequent on maceration and drying(2). Ingalls has dealt in similar manner with the femur as a representative of the long bones, arid also with the ribs, scapula and other bones(1). The vertebrae form a class by 303