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Further Report

FRANK McDOWELL, M.D.; JAMES BARRETT BROWN, M.D.

AMA Arch Surg. 1952;64(5):655-664.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

DIRECT,rigid fixation of the bone fragments is best in treating severe fractures of the jaws. This is accomplished by drilling one or more steel pins or Kirschner wires longitudinally through the bone across each fracture site to firmly engage both fragments. The resulting steel skeleton within the bone transforms a shattered, limp jaw into a solid unit and maintains its integrity until bony union has occurred and the pins can be removed (Fig. 1).

The serious complications to be avoided in jaw fractures are osteomyelitis, nonunion, and malunion; all of them can be prevented by early accurate reduction and firm fixation. Wobbly fixation is no better in the jaws than in other fractures, and the end-results may even be worse. The rigidity of the internal fixation described here is due to the fact that the steel pins have such leverage advantage that the bone ends cannot move unless they first shear the metal . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
ST. LOUIS

From the Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine.

Footnotes
Read at the Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Western Surgical Association, Colorado Springs, Colo., Nov. 29, 1951.

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