NERVE GRAFTING.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 138, 16 July 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

NERVE GRAFTING.

Dr. J. Gluck, of Bucharest, lately brought before the ninth congress of the German Society of Surgery at Berlin some interesting results of experiments in nerve grafting. He cut out a portion of the sciatic nerve of a fowl, and then removed a similar portion of the same nerve from the leg of a rabbit, and placed this in the log of the fowl, uniting the two ends by sutures. The nerve united, and the paralysis caused, of course, by the excision of the piece of nerve, was recovered from. He repeated the experiment, and exhibited the successful results, showing the fowls with full restoration of power. He was led to these experiments by the result of a case of nerve suture. Paralysis of the median had resulted from extensive destruction of the tissue of the arm by gangrene. Dr Gluck cut down on the radial nerve aud found that part of the nerve was destroyed. He united the two ends by sutures, and the man regained the power of motion, which he had entirely lost. Of course, the experiments iu nerve grafting in animals, adds the ‘Lancet,’ do not warrant the expectation that a similar result could be obtained in the case of the human subject. It is well known that the union and regeneration of nerves occur with greater facility in the case of the lower animals than in man.