Celluloid v. Epilepsy

By replacing a top section of an epileptic's skull with a piece of thick celluloid, Dr. Karl Winfield Ney claims to alleviate many cases of epilepsy. Last week Dr. Ney, 50, professor of neurosurgery at Manhattan's Homeopathic Medical College & Flower Hospital, told the Schenectady County Medical Society the why and how of his procedure.

During the War surgeons noticed that after head injuries many soldiers developed epilepsy. Dr. Ney and associates, first with the French Red Cross, later the American Expeditionary Forces, observed particularly that where the injury occurred the cortex and three soft coverings of the brain (pia mater, arachnoid membrane, dura mater) adhered to the skull. If during an operation the surgeon pulled at the attached soft parts, the patient on the operating table went into epileptic convulsions. The Ney group judged that the convulsions resulted from the incidental stretching of the cerebral cortex.

Dr. Ney has followed that idea through, found that a growth in the coverings of the brain is frequently associated with epilepsy. Small whitish bodies called Pacchionian granulations grow out of the arachnoid (middle) membrane. Dr. Ney's belief is that man's upright posture conditions the growth of Pacchionian granulations. The growths frequently erode, in one direction through the dura mater and into the skull, in the other direction through the pia mater to the brain itself. Their final effect often is to peg the brain to the skull.

Special x-ray procedure, in which air is placed in the subdural space, will disclose such attachments and consequent stretching of the brain. In epileptics these unnatural attachments usually occur at the top of the skull. Dr. Ney cuts out the special section of bone, replaces the bone with a thick celluloid which the du Pouts make for him. The celluloid plate lowers the dome of the skull, prevents brain attachments, consequently prevents brain stretching. The operation is a plastic one. The scalp grows over the celluloid skull insert, which does not fracture, gives perfect brain protection. One of Dr. Ney's patients went diving, hit a block with his patched head, suffered no consequences.

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