MEDICAL CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1924, Page 1

MEDICAL CONFERENCE

ATJCKLAXSD, March 2.

The council of tho New ZcalaiK

branch of the Medical Association met yesterday morning and discussed problems of hospital administration. It was decided that Dr Mayor and Dr. Franklin H. Marton, Director-General of the American College of Surgeons, he asked to give the conference the benefit of tlioir wide experience of hospital management at- a- special meeting. The proceedings of separate sections have commenced, the divisions being (1) medicine. (2) surgery, (3) ear, nose, throat and eye specialists. Before the medical section Dr. Frank Fitefiett (Dunedin) spoke on the treatment of pneumonia. He dealt with .sei um treatment. Referring to recent research work and its application to Hir- treatment of pneumonia he mentioned }):i rt ieula rly the brilliant researches of Dr. Cole, ill the Rockefeller Institute. I'-S.A.

Hr. ('. [>. E. Tudehopo (Auckland) discussed I ho use of peptone injections in cases ol asthma and the modern treatment of other common chest conditions.

Dr. ('. 11. Tewsley (Auckland) demonstrated by means of charts ceilnin points arising during treatment of some complicated chest conditions.

Dr. S. V. Sewell (Melbourne), in ■losing the discussion, spoke from his wide hotpitnl experience, particularly aitii tuberculosis.

Before the surgical section Mr F. S Batchelor (Dunedin) read a paper eit gastric surgery, followed by Mr Casement- Aickin (Auckland) and Dr. Mayo. Dr. Mayo referred to the operalion of partial gastrecut-omy, an operation in which a very considerable portion of stomach can ho successfully removed with comparatively little disturbance to the patient. The success of this operation owes very much to Dr Mayo personally. Dr. W. Gilmour, pathologist at Auckland Hospital, stated that the surgical view that all eases of gastric ulcer tended to become malignant was not borne out by post-mortem examination. Dr. Mayo, in accepting this statement, emphasised the- change which hud taken place in the mortality from

gastric ulcers and the great diminution in the incidence of cancer of the stomach, which had arisen trom the tact that early operation wa.s now such a .safe procedure. Surgery of the sir much had advanced to such a pitch Pant surgeons could with confidence in many cases be content with lesser operations, reserving the major portion of gastreeotoniv for a few eases which "ere too far advanced for any other procedure. That being .so the question •is to per rentage of cases of niter ol mo stomach which became malignant or cancerous was now a matter of statistics .only, largely one of Jpierely academic interest.

Before the special section Dr. Frances I*. Emerson (Boston) read a paper discussing the question whether chronic progressive deafness was a rhiiiolog.ieal or an otological problem. A. meeting of the combined sections 'la, held lately. Dr. Mayo read a

paper on the .splenomegalies. He dealt with cases of colargenient of the spleen. Futil recent years much of their knowledge had been derived from post-mor-tem examinations. The advance made by modern surgery enabled Dr. Mayo to siH/ak, however, of conditions of the spleen as he found them in operations. H ■ gave instances of several cases of remarkable recoveries as « result of the removal of the spleen. I lie .spleen was, however, in no ease the cause of such diseases, such as severe anaemias at. I other blood diseases, but. was the channel through which tho effect upon tile system of these diseases was to a large, extent conveyed. In ,sui t:\ible eases, therefore, the removal of the

spleen was an operation of the highest v;.hie. Dr. Mayo illustrated by means of lantern slides the technique of the eie-ration for removal of the spleen.