"SHORT-CIRCUITED."

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 12

"SHORT-CIRCUITED."

DABENG : EXPERIMEItfS ON THJS .. \ ■ .". ■ HEART. ■ /.■■/.- .; REVOLUTION IN SURGERY. • v -The latest marvel of modern surgery is described by the New. York correspondent of "The Times/" who states that.Dr..Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, whose achievements were ■'■ rewarded' with the Nobel.Prize in 1912, addressed the American Surgical Association, describing a series of successful experimental operations *on the valves and orifices of the hearts of dogs.

Dr. Carrel declared that the object of the operations is that they, will ultimately bo applied, in" human surg-% cry. Bβ asserted that some day surgeons will ■bo able to cauterise lesions of the valves in human subjects and repair them as easily, or almost as easily, as he himself has been able to do in experimental operations on animals.

The report is amazing, reading. The chest-wall having been opened,, the pedicle of tho heart—that is, the mass of blood vessels and ligaments by which it is suspended—is seized by a dozen forceps whose metal paws are covered with soft rubber. This shuts off all circulation from the heart iteelf, so that the organ hangs as an inanimate object. It is safe, Dr. Carrel declares, thus to arrest the circulation for two and a half minutes. Dr. Carrel makes an incision in the heart-wall \ljin. long over tho operative point. He finds this givee room enough within which to work. Several kinds of operations were performed. Operations were performed for the pur-' poso of learning whether operations euch as should be made in cases of inflammation, stenosis ("contraction"), or dilatation of the opening, were possible. Dr. Carrel found that thoso operations could be performed with but little danger to the life of. animals. Only two of quite a largo number died, and the deaths were due solely to errors of technique. The operations were performed in October and November, and tho animals are now in a nor- i mal condition. Dr. Carrel says that it! in undoubtedly possible to perform j more complicated operations than thoso ' already performed under similar conditions. ]

An expert writes, to 'The Times": The most remarkable feature of these experiments is the fact that tho heart was stopped, or rather, "short-cir-cuited," during the progress. It was found that for 2J minutes the body could lire without circulation. Within this short period the heart vras actually opened and either the vegetations (or growth) on diseased valves cauter/sed, or where there was narrowing of a passage dilatation was carried out, or, finally, where a passage was dilated a. few stitches inserted to narrow it. The heart was then stitched up again, and the cirenlntion "turned on." Though there are 'several cases on record of tho successful treatment of "email wounde of the heart by stitching, the work" of Dr. Carrel is revolutionary.