Repairing a Spine.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 30 October 1914, Page 2

Repairing a Spine.

j While stories of remarkable and thrilling operation were being told to the congress of doctoi's in London, a., still more extraordinary j feat was performed, for the first [ time in England, at the Oriho- \ paeclic Hospital in Great ' Portland Street. Before fifty eminent si.rgvons of mixed nationalities, Dr. F. H. Allbee, of New York, : showed how he repairs the deceased spine of a tuberculous child, : iiiiii so hastens the patient's reI coi cry by many months. A child | four years old was anaesthetised i and placed on the operating table. The left shin-bone having been bared t a splint three inches long and a I third of an inch wide was cut from the tibia by a tiny circular saw electrically i.iriven. This tiny fragment was then fixed in the furrow left in four diseased vertebrae, and the surrounding tissues I were stitched over it. From start jto finish the opunuion lasted' but jtweiity-two nutHJt</8. 'Or. All bee I has performed 14-f-, similar opoxaj lions in the U.S. with inagninoeat ' results.