III. FRACTURE

      Rapid healing as well as relief of severe pains can be attained through the homœopathic medicine.

      Surgical assistance wherever needed must be resorted to. 

      Aconitum napellus: as already said, will remove the initial shock.  It will be helpful to give it as soon as the injury occurs.

      For splitter fracture, Hypericum.

      For the Oedema, Haematoma after fractures, Arnica montana, Ferrum phosphoricum, [116] later Ledum.

      Bovista: Oedema, swelling of joints after fractures. [117]

      Calendula : “Trauma affections; to secure union by first intention and to prevent suppuration” [118]

      Incidentally, most of us use Calendula only in tincture solutions for lacerations, dressing of wounds.  It has other healing powers.  Read about it in BURNETT [119]. It has far greater action than mere external application.  See ALLEN. [120] 

      Symphytum officinalis is very well-known for its work in rapid union of fractures. It “lessens the stitching pain” and the “sensibility in part fractured”.  It promotes callus formation between the fractures. [121]  This remedy is very useful for Contusion to the eyeball.

      P.SCHMIDT says that Symphytum 30 can be given at the beginning itself to prevent the development of pseudo arthritis. [122]

      JAHR recommends the use of this remedy in fracture externally also.  Tincture in water solution as a compress; also internally three globules 30 potency in solution, twice a day three teaspoons for 3-4 days and then twice a day for two weeks. [123]

      Symphytum 200: was given to a lady 49 years who complained of pain right forearm from exertion, h/o # 10 years ago when she fell from a bus.

      This pain was much improved with Symphytum 200, given on 2 Sept. 2006.

      It also reduced heel pain.

      Calcarea carbonica, Calcarea phosphorica, Calcarea fluorata: all help in callus formation.  These are to be applied in accordance with the symptoms.

      Ruta graveolenshas affinity to the periosteum; may follow Symphytum. [124]

A Story of Acute pain, Surgery, & Homoeopathic Remedies

      This is an interesting report of the author’s husband who suffered from an injury of the knee cap and was rushed to the hospital for immediate attention.  Next day he was seen by the Orthopaedist and surgery (the lower part of the patella had broken and the ligaments were like shreds and the patella was wandering up the thigh). Surgery was done and very soon he was discharged and made good recovery.   All through the processes homoeopathic remedies Arnica, Ledum, Apis, etc. including before the surgery and after and for the effects of the Morphia, etc.  It is interesting that the surgeon and the nurses so cooperated and allowed the wife (the author) to use homoeopathic medicines. 

      The author says that her intention in writing this case for the journal is to let others know that if faced with hospitalization these days perhaps the picture is not as bleak, homoeopathically speaking.  Also to emphasize that while homoeopathic remedies are not give aspain killers, when the correct remedy is used in these intense acute situations it can be relied upon to keep pain levels at a minimum.   Also that the remedies are not as likely to be antidoted by medications as we often believe. [125]

EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM FOR FRACTURE

         In early October in Phoenix in 1979 I was lecturing on Eup. perf. to a group of health professional. I kept emphasizing how the pains of a Eup. perf. case of flu were so deep that it felt almost as if the bones themselves were broken. If a flu victim complains that his bones feels like they have been fractured, I said, then one really ought to consider Eup. perf.

            When I returned to Phoenix a month later I was surprised to learn that one of the students said he had used used Eup. perf. quite effectively in a case of actual bone fracture. The patient, he said, had been  in a car accident and had sustained a fracture of one of the bones of his leg. He was in great pain. Recalling my lectures, the physician gave the man a dose of Eup. perf. Within minutes, he said, the pain diminished markedly.

      I was puzzled, I said to the student that I had never suggested that Eup. Perf. was effective in lessening the pain of fractures. Rather, I had spoken of how the Eup. perf. pain in influenza was so deep that to the patient needing Eup. perf.  It felt as though the bones were broken. The student, naturally, was undaunted. He had got a good result with in an actual fracture in spite of misunderstanding me.

      A year or two later, when someone called me and asked if I had a homoeopathic remedy for the pain of a bone fracture, I decided to try Eup. perf. The effect was outstanding: the pain relief was quick and profound. I began to treat every case of bone fracture with Eup. perf. In every instance, the patient got relief. I remember one particularly difficult case: a middle-aged woman with a long history of repeated fractures of the tibia suffered yet another pain . Demerol was given but no relief. I was called and started her onEup. Perf.  30 p. r. n.   It acted, but within a day the relief was minimal. So I upped the potency to the 200^th and she again gained relief. After a few more days, Eup. Perf. 200 was no longer helping, so I moved higher. To 1M, them 10 M, 50 M and finally CM, all of them p. r. n. It was several weeks before the healing was sufficiently advanced so that she longer needed Eup. perf. But she was delighted as it was by far the most pain-free fracture she had ever had.

      As I acquired more experience with Eup. perf. as a remedy for the pain of bone fracture, I began to recommend its use to other homoeopaths. All feedback as been positive, i,e Eup. perf. relieves the pain of a fracture. So what started out as a matter of simple serendipity now needs serious attention. We may have, in Eupatorium perfoliatum, a major medicine for the relief of pain affecting the periosteum (which contains the pain fibres of bone) [126].

[Slightly condensed by Dr. K. S. Srinivasan, Madras; for private communication only. We may add Eup. Perf. to the kent’s Rep. under GENERALITIES at page No.1369, Col.I under INJURIES, bones; page 1378, Col. I PAIN, bones, periosteum; page 1378, Col. II PAIN, bones, broken, as if bones. Readers are requested to please furnish clinical results of use of Eup. perf. In pains of fractures – K.S.S.]

      Borax: Fracture of left clavicle in a new born child healed. [127] [worse from downward motion was the ‘key’ for Borax, the child suffered from several other symptoms, and there was alround improvement with the Borax, including the clavicle. Lesson: theright  remedy will cure totally, even though the remedy is not a ‘known’ ‘trauma remedy’. = KSS]

Eupatorium perfoliatum also has reputation of alleviating the pains of fracture (Pain as if bones broken).

      HUGHES says that Iodum will help the union in scrofulous constitution. [128]

      The Homœopathy practitioner rarely gets chance to treat fractures, since there is an opinion that the surgeon alone has a role in these cases.  Our remedies will promote rapid union and relieve pains.  As said at the beginning, every surgical case is at the same time a medical one too.