FACE RESTORING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2125, 8 May 1920, Page 4

FACE RESTORING.

WOXDFIvS OF SUIiGEKY. A spccia 1 correspondent of; (lie London Morning Post,in detailing a visit to Queen's Hospital, Widen]), writes of the wonders of war surg-ery-—“the triumph of man’s science over man’s malignity.” The write” gives a broad indication of the principles of this work of reconstruction. A case has had ■lds lips blown away, and his face is a sight of horror. On the operating table a long strip of skin and flesh is lifted from his chest and attached to his face. At its base the strip is left adhering to the chest, and keeps its old blood circulation. In time it grows healthily on to the face, and the man goes about for weeks with a tube of flesh running from his chest to his face. When this is growing well on the face the connection with the chest is cut away and the flesh that has been added to the face is shaped into a lip. Perhaps some of the jaw-bone lias been blown away. Bone is taken from the hip or elsewhere, and grafted into the face to make a new jaw. Xo operation—or rather series of operations, for usually several are necessary—is exactly the same as another, but all follow the general principle of taking bone or flesh from whore it can be taken without injury to the body, and transplanting if. still living, to a new site. A man with his chin completely blown away has had a large piece of flesh taken from his upper thigh,and

transplanted on to his arm. The next step will be to transplant it from /he arm to the chin. Then, within this bed of flesh, a hone will be grafted, and he Will be a man again in face. In the case of a man with his upper lip and his lower nose destroyed, it was certain That, n good deal of ugly scar would lie left. So the new flesh of the lip was taken from the hack of the scalp. The man’s new lip now has a strong moustache, which will hide the scar and what is left of the nose disfigurement.

Xew noses, arc built in various ways, one of which is by transferring cartilage from a rib to the forehead, and, when it is growing healthily there, currying it down to make the nose. One case of complete destruction of the nose Ims. now a nose which is indistinguishable at a distance of five yards, and on (dose inspection shows a somewhat fat and slightly scarred feature. Queen’s Hospital, Sidcnp, was opened in 1917. It has many months’ work yet to do, lor sometimes a facial reconstruction takes a year to carry through. It is under the joint control of the 1\ or Office amt the Red Cross. In 1918 and 1919 Queen’s, Kidcup, was a truly Imperial hospital, with British, Canadian, Australian, ami New Zealand sections, hut the Dominions’ sections have now been demobilised. But it still has many hundreds of patients, and will have for some time to come, for early war cases are now being sent in by the Ministry of Pensions.