MARVELS OF SURGERY.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 September 1919, Page 7

MARVELS OF SURGERY.

NEW FEATURES FOR OLD. THE “PLASTIC” TREA’I.‘MEN'I‘. WONDERFUL RESULTS ACHIEVED DUNEDIN, Sept. 9. The work of heatiiig jaw and facial injuries is a slow and gradual process in which The skill of man is linked with ‘rho influences of Nature to produce the beneficial results aimed at. Some of the patients’ at. present under treatment have been in hospiial for 12 or 18 months, and a. few have been there as long as two yoa.rs_ It is not pretended thaf a man can be supplied with’ 9. com» ‘ plci‘ face, but the marvels of plastic

surgery are so great that he can he provided with new fC2LI'tIII’GS similar to those which he originally possessed. Before the war medical surgery sought to achieve this result by one large operation, but experience has shown the necessity for carrying out the treatment in stages, in order to avoid residual sepsis, which, if it sets in, nullifies all the work that has been done. Nowadays the man has to undergo for his own benefit :1 series of operations, extending over a considerable period, nurnbering from five to six up to as many as ten or twelve. In the more serious cases the work is carried out by -a. medical operatscr in conjunction with a 'dental e.\:pert. The operations are, of course, performed ' under an anaesthetic, and while they do not involve a great deal of pain, it ‘is obvious that flacial surgery x-of any kind involves a considerable amount of dis-

g comfort. When a man requires a new . nose he can be supplied with one -praevtieally to order. If his :features were iaquiline before his injury they can be ;so restored as to be still caquiline, and ' the same result can be attended in ‘deal- § ing with Various other types of? noses. iSl~:in replacement of the nose is Ob- ‘ tained by cutting a flap from the foreghead. This is then detached at the upper end, in order to retain the blood supply, and after being folded own‘ it is grafted on to the injured part. W'hen it has set it_ is ‘detached at the lower end also. When a cartilage is required for the. nose it is obtained from a rib, and is so grafted on that the original structure of the Organ is preserved in its entirety. Skin for the upper lip is obtained from the scalp, and it is grafted on in such a Way that the injured man is able to grow a, mous-t tache from hair which once grew on his head. Certain lditfieiilties would, of course, arise in the case of :1. 11121111‘ whose head was bald, but no- doubt: even this 'u'ifl‘iculty would be su.rmoun't~ ’ed. For injuries to the lower lip, skin is obtained from the neck of chest, in 3 the same manner as in other cases} and I operations have been performed int which two relays of skin have been de- ‘ taehed when such a course was rendered necessary. I In future it will be possible to apply plastic surgery to the treatment of ordinary hospitrali cases, and where a -patient, for instance, Elias developed some malignant disease. of the nose, it may be found advantageous to re-' move the organ altogether and to re-I place it by means of a. series of opera- I tions in plastic surgery. , I