Gary Weaver

A Case of Infection

Young female patient presented with left index finger very swollen, with localised redness and most of the swelling at side of finger. Examination showed entry wound and lodgement of a piece of wood from a few days earlier.

There was sponginess of the tissue surrounding the site with pus of a whitish cloudy, slightly thick nature with an unpleasant smell.

It was too painful to work on without anaesthetic, so I decided to give a medicine and wait a short while.

Causation was skin entry via splinter. The skin was heavily inflamed discharge was thick, white and odorous.

As you can see from the Repertorisation, Silica fitted the presenting symptoms completely. I gave 0/1 repeated every 10 mins for 3 doses.

The pain increased on the 3rd dose. on examination, the swelling had increased around the entrance wound with the pressure internally of the skin showing whiter. I cleaned the area and applied light pressure. The pus exploded into the gauze giving instant relief to the patient, and exposed a piece of the splinter which was deep within. I was able to remove the splinter and clean the wound site. I left it open with sterile dressing.

Patient came the following day, after taking two more doses of Silica. The rapidly healing wound was cleaned and redressed. Patient was instructed to take one dose of Silica a day for 2 days. The next visit, after 5 days showed a 95% healed area and no infection or inflamation.

The medicine that came to mind whilst examining the finger was Hepar Sulph. Referencing the Materia Medica showed the symptoms produced in the disease state, were not produced in the provings. Only Silica matched the presentation.