Asked by
bims k
in
Personal Health
at
5:04 PM on April 28, 2008
deepa iyer's Answer
The Treatment of Corns
Any corn may be speedily and permanently cured. The treatment is of three kinds—preventive, palliative, and curative.
I
The preventive treatment lies in adopting such measures as will secure freedom from pressure and friction for the parts most liable to corns. To this end a well-fitting shoe is essential. The shoes should be of well-seasoned leather, soft and elastic, and should be cut to a proper model.
II
The palliative treatment is generally carried out with chemical substances. The best method, is, briefly, as follows: A ring of glycerine jelly is painted around the circumference of the corn, to form a raised rampart. A piece of salicylic plaster mull is then cut to the size and shape of the central depression, and applied to the surface of the corn. This is then covered with a layer of glycerine jelly, and before it sets a pad of cotton wool is applied to the surface. This process is repeated as often as is necessary, until the horny layer separates and is cast off.
If the point of a sharp, thin-bladed knife be introduced at the groove which runs around the margin of the corn, and be made to penetrate toward its central axis, by the exercise of a little manual dexterity the horny part of the corn can be easily made to separate from the parts beneath.
III
Any method of treatment to be curative must secure the removal of the entire corn, together with the underlying bursa. It is mainly in connection with the latter structure that complications, which alone make a corn a matter of serious import, are likely to arise. Freeland confidently advises the full and complete excision of corns, on the basis of his experience in upward of 60 cases.
Every precaution having been taken to render the operation aseptic, a spot is selected for the injection of the anaesthetic solution. The skin is rendered insensitive with ethyl chloride, and 5 minims of a 4 per cent solution of cocaine is injected into the subcutaneous tissue beneath the corn. After a wait of a few minutes the superficial parts of the site of the incision are rendered insensitive with ethyl chloride. Anaesthesia is now complete.
Two semielliptical incisions meeting at their extremities are made through the skin around the circumference of the growth, care being taken that they penetrate well into the subcutaneous tissue. Seizing the parts included in the incision with a pair of dissecting forceps, a wedge-shaped piece of tissue—including the corn, a layer of skin and subcutaneous tissue, and the bursa if present—is dissected out. The oozing is pretty free, and it is sometimes necessary to torsion a small vessel; but the hemorrhage is never severe. The edges of the wound are brought together by one or two fine sutures; an antiseptic dressing is applied, and the wound is left to heal—primary union in a few days being the rule. The rapidity of the healing is often phenomenal. There is produced a scar tissue at the site of the corn, but this leads to no untoward results.
Answered at
11:21 PM on April 29, 2008
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