THE ADVANCE OF SURGERY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 467, 22 May 1912, Page 7

THE ADVANCE OF SURGERY.

The most remarkable advance in medical surgery in recent years is in jases of treatment of wounds in the leart. No farther back than 1896, it vvas commonly held that in the majority of cases injuries to the heart would not admit of any treatment. But now, owing to the skill and darng of modern surgery, it is possible to be shot or stabbed in the heart, under certain conditions, and still recover. In a lecture at the Middlesex Hospital, reported in the "British Medical Journal," Dr. John BlandSutton makes some revelations as;onishing to the layman. By exposng the heart and stitching up the .vound, it has in recent years been ; ound possible to save 35 per cent, of cases which in other days would nave proved fatal. It has happened that bullets have traversed the heart

completely, and the holes made by ;he entry and exit have been closed with stitches, and the patient's life saved. In one case a man was shot in the chest, but was not operated an until four months afterwards, when the bullet was found by means of the X-rays. The chest was opened and the bullet, surrounded by a piece ;>f the man's shirt, was extracted .vith forceps. He recovered. Dr. Bland-Sutton's interest in the treatment of injuries of the heart was awakened by an extraordinary assault which a drunken man made on liis own heart. Some men were :lrinking in a beershop ; one of them, a lad of twenty, was playing with a loaded revolver,, and a companion made a bet with him that he was ifraid to shoot himself in the heart. The mad-brained youth immediately fired the revolver into his chest, and was brought into the hospital in a collapsed state. It was found that ;he bullet had ploughed a deep groove in the apex of the heart, torn iway a piece of the diaphragm, and perforated the stomach. The lad died—but not from the injury to the leart. This made Dr. Bland-Sutton aware of the injuries the heart will put up with, and he has since found i good deal of confirmation of his views. His account of the operation is testimony to the daring of pre-sent-day surgeons. First of all a cutting is made in the chest and the leart exposed. The surgeon then looks for the wound. If it is not obvious, he gently compresses the .-essels at the root of the heart, when the cavities fill, and the leakng spot is seen. He then closes the opening, with stitches. Dr. BlandSutton gave one hint of the dihculty of the operation, but it is. a vivid one : "It is not always an easymatter to pass stitches successfully through the wall of the living heart, especially if it bo beating tumultously."