FRACTURES OF METACARPALS AND PHALANGES

There has always seemed to be in the minds of the medical profession a feeling that fractures of the small bones of the hand were more or less inconsequential, when as a matter of fact it is true that in persons who most frequently sustain fractures of these small bones the disability is very great when it comes to affecting earning power. They of course most frequently occur in workmen and are the result practically always of direct violence in which the structures surrounding the fracture are injured as well as the bone. As in all fractures, the contour of the bone and the attached muscles must be constantly in mind in determining the best form of treatment, and the muscles attached to the metacarpals and phalanges are no exception when one is dealing with fractures of these bones. In the case of the metacarpals there are attached on each