Glue for Broken Bones

A dream of bone doctors for generations has been a substance that will glue broken bones together, permit rapid recovery. Last year the surgical world perked up its ears when an American orthopedic surgeon told of a plastic glue that foams and hardens after being poured into the hollow channels of broken or diseased bones, seems to have no toxic effects. Last week the medical world was evaluating a progress report by Dr. Michael P. Mandarino of Philadelphia's Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital that the plastic glue was 94% successful in the treatment of 250 cases.

The glue is mixed at the operating table by adding a catalyst to a pre-polymer, which then becomes a plastic (Ostamer) that hardens in a few minutes in the bone marrow. Then the wound is covered with a dry, sterile dressing. What makes the glue particularly effective is that bone cells grow through as well as around the glue, which thus serves as a natural joiner of bone ends.

Bone Welder Mandarino was formerly a bone crusher. He worked his way through medical school (Hahnemann Medical College, '45) by playing professional football (guard) for the Philadelphia Eagles, currently is team physician for the Eagles. With Dr. Joseph E. Salvatore of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he has worked on the bone glue for four years, has found that patients with compound fractures can return to work four to ten months sooner than with plaster casts. It helps particularly with older people whose bones are slow to heal. While the yellowish bone glue has produced no toxic or foreign-matter reactions in patients thus far, Drs. Mandarino and Salvatore are still studying it for potential long-term ill effects.

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