FEAT IN SURGERY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 22 March 1917, Page 3

FEAT IN SURGERY.

LIVE NERVE SEWN INTO MAN'S ARM. Sufficient time has now elapsed tn assure the complete success of one or the most striking surgical experiments resulting from the war (says the, Mail.) The patient, a young officer at the Queen Alexandra Hospital for Officers at Highgate, had been severely wounded in the forearm, four inches of the ulnar nerve, one of the important nerves supplying the hand, being totally destroyed, thus rendering the hand practically useless. ' “About one cas e in ten of ordinary nerve-grafting with laboratory-treateef nerves succeed,” the surgeon who performed the operation told a correspondent, “so I decided to replace the destroyed nerve with another similar nerve as nearly alive as possible.” Search was therewore made at p number of London hospitals until the case of limb operation, from which was obtained the required length of a practically living, healthy nerve of the same quality and size as the destroyed ulnar. This was sent to the officers’ hospital by taxi-cab. On its arrival the officer was at once anaesthetised, the wound in the forearm was opened, and the section of nerve was sewn to the two ends of the injured ulnar, thus bridging the gap, Th e wound was then closed. After some weeks, faint sensation, and, later, power to move the muscles of the hand governed by the ulnar nerve, gradually returned, until a few weeks ago the officer was able to leave the hospital and take up light duties at a home station.