SURGICAL SKILL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5086, 9 February 1927, Page 4

SURGICAL SKILL.

BOY’S LIFE SAVED.

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE. Operating wßliin a hair’s breadth of the brain, a Sydney surgeon saved the life of a boy at the. Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and removed a hydatid cyst as large as a pigeon’s egg from behind the child’s left eye. Sydney medical men, particularly those specialising in eye work, have been intensely interested in this extraordinary case. I A five-year-old boy named Arthur Randle was brought to the hospital from Nana Glen, near Goff’s Harbour, with 'the tissue, round his left eye so swollen and inflamed that the eyeball had been forced right put of the socket, and was projecting an inch to an inch and a half beyond the cont<y.ir of the face. Doctors were mystified, until at length, after a series of operations, the cause of the trouble was located in a hydatid cyst at the back of the I eye. This was removed, and the boy I is now making satisfactory progress towards recovery, although he has lost the sight of the eye. RARE OCCURRENCE. The occurrence is one of extreme rarity, and is likely to go on record in medical annals. According to the lad’s father, the swelling began five or six months ago. An operation was performed in the. country, and a quantity of pus was removed from the tissues about the eye. Only temporary relief was obtained, and, as the swelling grew worse, the boy was brought to Sydney last month. At that time the tissues were so distended that the eyelids could not close. An operation at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was performed by Dr. Waddy, and tests were made to determine whether the trouble was caused by a malignant growth at the back of the eye. No light was thrown an the mystery, however, as the laboratory examination of specimens gave negative results. A second operation, for exploratory purposes, was performed, andi the extraordinary discover}' was made of a hydatid cyst, as big as a pigeon’s egg, lying behind the eye. The removal of 'this invoved cutting within a hair’s breadth df .the brain, but the delicate operation was carried °utsuc- " cessfully, and there is now every indication that the boy has escaped the certain death which must have overtaken him. FIRST CASE OF ITS KIND. The. case is the first of its kind dealt with in the long history of the Royal Prince Alfred, and probably has few, if any, precedents in Australia, where hydatid is more plentiful than in any other country. Human beings are. the second host in the life history of the hydatid, which begins as an intestinal worm in d fl gs and one or two other animals. The eggs of these worms, when distributed, are liable to enter the human intestinal canal in drinking water or uncooked green vegetables, such as lettuce. In their new home the. eggs hatch and the hydatids pass into the blood stream. Most frequently they begin their activities in the liver, the first filter met with, but they may, in rare cases, pass on through the lungs to develop the cyst stage in any part of the body. In tne case under notice the hydatids must have passed through both liver and lungs before reaching their queer lodging place behind the eye.