Quotation from: Manual of Surgery

Written by: Alexander Miles and Alexis Thomson


_In the bones of the skull_, gummata may form in the peri-cranium,
diploe, or dura mater. An isolated gumma forms a firm elastic swelling,
shading off into the surroundings. In the macerated bone there is a
depression or an actual perforation of the calvaria; multiple gummata
tend to fuse with one another at their margins, giving the appearance of
a combination of circles: these sometimes surround an area of bone and
cut it off from its blood supply (Fig. 130). If the overlying skin is
destroyed and septic infection superadded, such an isolated area of bone
is apt to die and furnish a sequestrum; the separation of the dead bone
is extremely slow, partly from the want of vascularity in the sclerosed
bone round about, and partly from the density of the sequestrum. In
exceptional cases the necrosis involves the entire vertical plate of the
frontal bone. Pus is formed between the bone and the dura (suppurative
pachymeningitis), and this may be followed by cerebral abscess or by
pyaemia. Gummatous disease in the wall of the orbit may cause
displacement of the eye and paralysis of the ocular muscles.

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