Infantile Quadriceps-Femoris Contracture Resulting from Intramuscular Injections

Abstract

THE following case is described to alert those caring for infants to the possibility that repeated intramuscular injections into the thighs of infants may cause clinically serious contractures of the quadriceps femoris.¹ Case ReportA male infant (M.G.H. 150–80–53) was transferred to the Massachusetts General Hospital shortly after birth for surgical repair of a large ruptured omphalocele. He was treated with intramuscular oxacillin, kanamycin and nafcillin. He received 4 intramuscular thigh injections every day for the first 35 days of life. The volume of antibiotic solution ranged from 0.08 to 0.42 ml per injection.When he was 41 days old, . . .