SURGICAL TRIUMPHS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 17 June 1911, Page 15

SURGICAL TRIUMPHS.

REMARKABLE TRANSPLANTING OPERATIONS. Details of remarkable operations in tho domain of transplantation were given before tlic German Surgeons' Congress sitting in Berlin (writes the Berlin correspondent of the "Westminster Gazette"). The transplantations reported were of skin, membranes, tissues, nerves, bones, and' even of articulations. Professor Kuettner, of Breslau, reported that ho had replaced part of a femur, including the joint, with similar parts taken from a corpse. The patient died from a tumour some time later; and a post-mortem examination shov;ed that tho united bones had grown together perfectly. In two other similar cases the patients were alive and well. Professor Kuettner expressed tho opinion that it will henceforth bo regularly possible to transplant sound articulations from corpses. Professor Lexer, of Jena, who is doscribed as inventor of tho above-men-tioned method of transplantation, gave an account of another triumph in this domain. He introduced to tho Congress a lady patient who had attempted suicide by drinking sulphuric acid, and who had seriously burned and constricted tho oesophagus. Dr. Lexer constructed an entirely new oesophagus out of intestine and a piece of outer skin, and grafted it on instead of the injured organ. It reached from tho pharynx to tho stomach, and proved completely successful, the patient being able to swallow solids and fluids without difficulty. This is apparently the first timo this operation has been performed, as several other surgeons present gave accounts of unsuccessful attempts.