Acromegaly / by Maximilian Sternberg ; translated by F.R.B. Atkinson.

  • Sternberg, Maximilian, 1863-
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acromegaly / by Maximilian Sternberg ; translated by F.R.B. Atkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    •cutaneous tissue of tlie back of tbe bands, which causes a •claw-like enlargement of the hands. Claw-like, shapeless hands often also arise from chronic inflammation of the tendinous sheaths on the palmar surfaces. In very rare cases multiple enchondromata are developed •at the time of growth, symmetrically in both hands and feet, which make thick, shapeless, strangely curved and deformed appendages of the fingers and toes. The case of Annandale’s, copied by all surgical manuals, is familiar: Whittaker gives splendid illustrations of a lately observed case. Claw-like hands as a result of swelling of the soft parts occur in elephantiasis neuromatodes (creeping neuroma). Elephantiasis, in the narrower sense, cannot certainly be mistaken for acromegaly; it is as a rule limited to the legs, and leads to so tremendous a disfigurement that its recogni- tion causes no difficulty. The same applies to the various forms of secondary elephantiasis (pseudo-elephantiasis) arising from local abscess formations (abscess of the skin, syphilis, caries, &c.). Mistake also with oedema in pregnancy has occurred (Iorge). It is desirable to look over once more in a systematic survey the conditions and diseases, which come into consideration, in the differential diagnosis of acromegaly. They are as follows: — A. Diseases which, through partial appearances, may be mistaken for acromegaly. 1. Tumour of the brain. 2. Morbus Basedowii. 3. Diabetes. 4. Myopathies. 5. Diseases of the reproductive organs. 6. Acroparasthesia. 7. Rheumatism. 8. Traumatic neurosis and simulation of such. B. Diseases and conditions, with changes in the external shape of the body, resembling acromegaly. I. Anomalies of growth. 1. Gigantism. 2. Congenital partial macrosomia. 3. Congenital and progressive partial macrosomia.