Quiz: When was this article published?

[richinma2005]

1. Obstetric brachial paralysis should be treated by the orthopaedic surgeon as early as possible.
2. If treated early and properly, one may expect in the mild cases a good recovery in three or four months.
3. The more severe cases will require about six or seven months for a complete recovery.
4. Nerve operations are indicated if no improvement results in four months.
5. If sufficient improvement is noticed in four months, one may wait for four months more.
6. The shoulder should be put immediately in a splint or brace to prevent stretching of the paralyzed muscles and contraction of the unopposed muscles.
7. The support must be kept up for a very long time, for about eight to nine months, as deformities may occur.
8. Adhesions may occur due to slight injuries of the capsule, but these can be prevented.
9. The only deformity that it is hard to prevent is the pronation of the forearm.
10. The posterior dislocation is a sequel to the unbalanced paralysis of the shoulder muscles and may be prevented in most cases by proper orthopaedic methods.
11. The obstetricians can prevent the condition in many cases by proper management of the shoulder.
12. Taylor's procedure seems to be the most suitable for the nerve operations.
13. After-treatment must be carefully carried out after Taylor's operation.
14. Sever's operation is the best for correction of the shoulder deformities.
15. Hooking of the coracoid process should be corrected by a subperiosteal resection.
16. Pronation should be corrected by a tenotomy of the pronator radiiteres. One may also transplant that muscle to use it as a supinator.

In the text it states:
Here is not the place to discuss the etiology in detail, but in order to
understand the work better, I have to remind you that it has been proven
beyond any trace of doubt that the correct theory is the tractiotn theory,
i. e., the damage is done by stretching of nerves of the brachial plexus by
forcible separation of the head from one shoulder during delivery, or by
direct traction on the arm (stretching, of course, may often result in complete
tear of the nerve fibers). The work of Taylor, Sever, Fairbank
and Platt' has established this theory. In a few of the cases reported in
a previous paper and in some additional cases reported below the damage
to the nerves was distinctly found.
There is no need to mention the fallacious theory of T. T. Thomas
congenital subluxation, as well as the theory of Veil that often there is a
truly congenital defect of development of the plexus as the result of continued
mal attitude of the shoulders during intra-uterine life.

[katep]

I'm guessing between 1920-1930, since Sever started condemning the use of Taylor's nerve operation in the 1920s since too many infants died from it. Microsurgery on the plexus didn't really get a foothold until the 1970s, when microsurgery along with improvements in anesthesia made it more worth the risk.


Kate

[richinma2005]

1923:

http://www.ejbjs.org/cgi/reprint/5/4/778