Surgeons Report

The soldier's hand had been shattered by a grenade explosion. Tendons, nerves and parts of bone up to the wrist were gone. In nine cases out of ten, amputation would have been routine. But surgeons in this case set to work to rebuild the hand.

From the soldier's abdomen, the surgeons grafted tissue to give the hand form. From his foot they got tendons (which the foot could get along without), from his thigh, slippery tissue for the tendons to slide on; from his calf, sections of nerve; from his hip, a piece of flank bone. Transplanted, these body materials in a few weeks gave the soldier a new hand, not perfect, but good enough to do carpentry with.

Last week this spectacular operation, exemplifying advances in plastic surgery in World War II, was described to the American College of Surgeons in Cleveland by Milwaukee's Surgeon William H. Frackelton, one of those who worked on the hand. For the 5,000 surgeons, attending their first postwar meeting, it was an exciting session. Wartime improvements in surgery had helped save 96% of the wounded, and there was progress to report all along the line. Some reports:

Artery Patch. A break in the aorta, the big artery leading away from the heart, is hard to repair; surgeons have tried patching with a length of metal tube, transplanted blood vessels, etc.--without great success. Dr. Charles A. Hufnagel of Harvard Medical School described a new patch that he thinks may fill the bill (it worked well on dogs). His invention: a tube of lucite, the glasslike plastic. Attached to separated ends of the aorta, a lucite patch lets the blood flow freely without clotting, becomes firmly attached to the artery, can be left in the body permanently.

Blood Accelerator. There was a small ray of hope for victims of Buerger's disease, painful, incurable ailment caused by blood-vessel constriction that impedes circulation to the legs and feet. University of Michigan physicians reported that a nerve-blocking injection of tetraethyl ammonium dilates blood vessels, relieves Buerger's disease (as well as certain other disorders resulting from blocked circulation). The drug does not cure, but it may stop pain for as long as six months.

Ear Opener. For a common type of deafness--resulting from blocking of the inner end of the Eustachian tube by abnormal growth of lymphatic tissue--Dr. John E. Bordley of Johns Hopkins described a new treatment: radioactive bombardment. If done early, before the blocking tissue hardens, irradiation with radium opens the tube, restores normal hearing.

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