SCULRTORS IN HUMAN FLESH

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 27

SCULRTORS IN HUMAN FLESH

Aesthetic surgery is the,youngest of the "medical arts, writes A. P. Lus-combe-Whyte, in the "News-Chronicle," London. While doctors have-not yet succeeded in conquering the common cold, that new art, the. sculpture of the human, flesh, has reached a degree of extraordinary perfection.

There are at" the "present moment twelve famous aesthetic surgeons in England and fifty-.in America. 'They have many pupils and in ten 'years plastic surgery will be universally practised.. It is not going too far to say that; in-fifteen years it will probably be the'most "advanced :of all branches 'of medical science; • '.-.-•■

Already.-it is being used to perform absolute miracles. Some time ago, in New York, I. saw a man leaving hospital. He seemed to me quite normal. Then they showed; me a photograph which made me shudder; it was the same man, but disfigured to such a degree that one could not distinguish his features.

"Six months ago," they told me, 'lie was injured in an automobile accident They had to perform twentyfive grafting operations before he could become'a normal man again.' A few years ago he would have been condemned to live hidden from human eyes."

* ;,.His 'jaw was' broken in twelve places; They replaced it with pieces oijbdne shaped to form a normal jaw and: afterwards covered it with flesh and, skin; "After a time'this grew into an indissoluble whole.

The nose, of which there remained only a fragment, was removed and a piece of cartilage from the leg was used to form a new nose. A piece of

flesh, taken from the chest, served td replace..^a cheek- and skin-, from the thighs provided' eyelids and nostrils. A small piece of the scalp served to make eyebrows. Fortunately the eyes themselves were intact as 'the doctors would not have been able to replace them. ■..•■.;■ ,

After this treatment the man's friends probably could not recognise him. But he was not repulsive looking; far from it.

Recently a workman in a chemical factory was terribly burned in the face by acid.. The surgeon decided to take from the man's chest the flesh and skin necessary for an operation. He gave him a local anaesthetic and an injection of adrenalin, then anointed the lace, with a liquid which formed a mask. The mask; was then placed on the man's chest. A piece of skin the same size was cut out and sewn on the face. At the end of some weeks the little blood vessels of the transplanted skin amalgamated with the other blood vessels. And now one could never guess that ■ this man had had his face burned.

As to operations on the nose, they take place by the million. If the nasal bone is destroyed it is replaced with cartilage. > This cartilage is moulded into the shape desired and soon amalgamates with the rest of the face.

Nothing is easier than to remodel an existing nose. '.This operation takes only about ah hour and is performed under a local anaesthetic. No scar remains to be seen as the surgeon operates inside the nostrils. They say that a hew nose always produces an excellent psychological; effect on a patient. ■