SURGERY WONDERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 September 1923, Page 1

SURGERY WONDERS.

REPAIRING FACIAL WOUNDS

INTERVIEW WITH DR ITCKERILL DUNEDIN, Sept. 19. The Woodside Hospital," established during the war for the treatment of soldiers who were disfigured or disabled by injuries to the taco or jaw, was closed down some time ago, and sufferers now go to the Montceillo Home, the Otago retreat for those soldiers who, unhappily, did not recover quickly. Some of the facial eases still conic in occasionally—some from a distance—for the completion of their treatment. They c-ome cheerfully and confidently, in the full assurance of ultimate success, and this confidence is not without warrant. In the course of an interview, Dill. P. Pickerill, Professor of Dentistry at Otago University, supplied .facts that are of a most cheering and informative nature concerning tin’s treatment and its results. Asked as to how the new surgery came into use, the doctor said the method of repairing facial wounds, as practised at present, originated almost entirely during the later years of the war. Previous to that time, facial wounds were repaired either by having metal masks painted (called by the soldiers “tin faces”), or by an operation in flic- face, drawing together the parts and making good the deficiencies caused by gunshot wounds. The method evolved, very largely at Sidcup (in

Surrey), was of grafting from otliei parts of the body to fill up deficiencies In the earlier stages of the practice there certainly was some doubt expressed as to whether these grafts—

skin, flesh, hone, and cartilage—would survive life and function normally and usefully to the individual. “Our experience, however,” said the doctor, “has been quite to the contrary. Roth at Sidcup and at Dunedin all the cases so treated by grafting, in which the grafts were successful at first, have ic-m,-lined successful. In Now Zealand, for instance, praetieallv all the men who came to us are now living ordinary lives and earning their livelihood without nnv marked facial or other disability. That is the true test of success; that the person who was a patient shall he able to go about and do his work without exciting pity or attracting attention. Only one exception occurred, and in the case of this man the graft did quite well. The treatment was obviously right, hut the poor fellow was incapacitated otherwise from earning his living.” It was further elicited that the

patients in New Zealand numbered the best part of a hundred, ami that the average term of treatment was from two or three years for had eases. One of the characteristics of the new system is to take the operations in stages.

Before the war it was thought preferable to do all that was surgically necessary in one operation, but the practitioners now let Nature come in between whiles with her healing powers, and the patients seem to prefer it. Another point concerning which everybody may not he informed is that the grafting is all done Horn tho patient’s own body. The plastic surgeons have now largely given up the practice of using grafts from another person. The main thing in the mind of the surgeon is to restore broken or crippled functioning. If the man’s nose is shot away, give him a nose that he can smell with. Take him that far and Nature will do the rest. Appearance is a secondary consideration . with the profession. They know that if a man’s body is got to function satisfactorily, he will in time come to look all right, approximately if not to perfection. AM AZI NG 11ESTOR ATI OXB. A question as to whether the age of the patient was a factor in a cure brought the reply that as between the extremes of military age no dillcrcnce was known by the (acini experts, that is to say, si. man of twenty-live and a man of forty have equal chances. Age does tell, but in a way not suggested

hv the Question. Strange to say tin viton who iiro n*nlly gelling up in yours :ts some of tlu* oouurnl officers nro make easier subjects for grafting. Thai is a peculiar fact that was discovers during the war. gome of the restorations are most amazing. An officer who had his chit shot away and gut a hole knocked it !iis head, is now able to not only resume his occupation, hut to play at athletic games. The hole above his eai was plugged with a piece of hone Irom his cliin. A limn whose lips wore both destroyed has Quito regained his sightliness.’ The graft for his upper lip win taken from his head, so as to induce the growing of a moustache, whilst the skin from the lower lip was obtained from the neck. One soldier received

:i nlous'hing straight down the centre of his face by a missile tliat took away the nose and lips and furrowed the chin. That was a had ease. The face was laid right open. That such terrible deprivation should lie repaired seems almost incredible, hut the sufferoi is now going about all right. At Sidcup a British man o' war's man was brought in with a fearful injury l>v a boiler explosion on a battleship. j*Hs neck was so horribly scalded as to leave a gigantic indurated scar on which his head was firmly fixed. w> that he could not move at all. This remarkable case likewise responded to treatment, and in witness thereof a photograph was taken of the man as lie joined up for further duty. VALUK OF I*l, A STIC SFKUKRY. The thought, naturally arises that these operations must cause a great amount of pain. As a tact, they do not. The common belief is that the facial region is peculiarly sensitive because of the existence there of so many nerves, hut the doctor says that he never knew a soldier to complain of pain, either when freshly brought in or after an operation. This is difficut to account for. It seems to be a merciful dispensation of Providence. The value of this plastic surgery is not going to he lost to the .world in times of peace. Civilian patients, are getting the advantage of.it. Some recent restorations are Quito remat liable. Ointment put on a hoy s nose caused some trouble that partly took the nose away, and a new one .was made for him. A new nose, was given to a man who had the tip bitten off b\ a burglar. One of the triumphs of plastic surgery is in regard to a rabbi tor, well up'in years (over (X.‘),.who, .whilst poisoning, got some of the phosphorus into a hollow tooth, and tints had the whole lower jaw destroyed. The operator, after preliminary measures, sent this patient to a place where he was specially fed. and nourished, so as to perfect his general health, and then operated upon for the entire removal of the jaw. This was a success and a new jaw. having grown, the old mail is as perky as ever. A case of cancer in the nose was also, treated. The surgeons cut out the tiny piece wherein the disease appeared, and the deficiency was made good hv a facial expert. Such a feat would have been impossible before the war. Tn all operations an essential is that the patient is in sound general health and in good condition.