Experimental arterial spasm in the lower extremities produced by traction.

Arterial spasm in an extremity may be produced in many ways. That localised trauma is responsible for widespread spasm has been shown experimentally by Barnes and Trueta (1942) and demonstrated clinically by Cohen (1944). Spasm caused by stretching a vessel has been observed at operation many times, but no reference has been discovered to experimental stretch of the entire vascular tree of a limb having caused widespread spasm. The following experimental work was prompted by the occurrence of vascular spasm in the lower extremity after traction in the treatment of fractures of the femur in childhood (Thomson and Mahoney 1951).