SOME ACHIEVEMENTS IN SURGERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2097, 25 January 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOME ACHIEVEMENTS IN SURGERY.

RESUSCITATING THE DEAD, Tlio title of an article by Dr. \V. (V. Keen, -in the “Saturday Evening Post,” is “Some Unsolved Problems in Surgery.” But it consists mainly on account of problems successfully solved. Wo are only on the verge, however, of the solution of tlio problem of resuscitating the dead. Tlio writer says: “Tlie ideal anesthetic is that which will abolish pain and also consciousness, but without any danger to life. Such nn anesthetic will surely be found. Its advantages are so obvious as not- to need further recapitulation. “Until this safe anesthetic is found surgeons are endeavoring to find the best means of resuscitating the patientwhen even apparently dead. In animals much has been done to show that we can avert the dangers, especially of chloroform. Last- May at tlio meeting of the American Surgical Association in Cleveland, Dr. Crilo showed soiiio marvellously successful experiments upon this subject which I had the pleasure of witnessing. In one of them a dog was killed by a Hi/rge- d/o.se, -of. chloroform. Fifteen minutes by my watch after the heart had ceased beating and after breathing had entirely ceased, a tube was inserted into a blood-vessel and a solution of salt and water of suitable strength, with a little adrenalin, was allowed to flow into the blood-vessel toward tlio heart. After a -few moments the chest was compressed to start the heart beating, and on tho instant breathing was resumed, the heart began to beat regularly, and within less than five minutes the dog had recovered. Up to eight minutes after apparent death, animals can nearly always bo rescuscitated, and even when the dog has been dead for twenty-five minutes, temporary resuscitation has been achieved. “11l n. few cases in which death from chloroform collapse has occurred ip man tlie heart- has been exposed and starting beating again, and life lias been saved by quickly opening tlio chest, seizing tlie heart by the hand and rhythmically squeezing it. Unfortunately by this method far more failures than isu/jcesses have been published, but as a result of Crilo’s experiments it is likely that' wo may be much more successful in tlie future.

EXPERIMENTS ON THE BLOOD VESSELS.

“Until lately, when a blood-vessel was cut, our only resource was to tie it -so as to prevent fatal hemorrhage ; but as this cut off the entire blood supply of a (leg tor an arm it was notl'seWom followed by gangrene. In the last few years, however, by experiments upon animals, we have learned how to sew up the openings in such vessels. Even when tho blood vessel has been completely cut across w© can now sew the ends together, thus restoring the continuity of the artery or vein, and preventing the gangrene which might otherwise follow. More than that, as a result of many such experiments, Carrel and Guthrie, in Chicago, have been able entirely to remove a kidney, and then replace it, sewing the cut ends of tho artery and the vein, each to each, and the kidney has resumed its normal function. They have able, successfully, to take one kidney from each of two dogs nad replace each kidney in the wrong dog. They have also succesfully sewed the cut end of an artery to a vein, and vice versa. Whether it will ever be possible to remove a man’s diseased kidney, and replace it by that of an animal, is as vet uncertain, but it is not impossible.”