TOMOGRAPH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1939, Page 9

TOMOGRAPH

“SEEING EYE’’ FINDS QLD SHRAPNEL. BOON TO THE WOUNDED. The tomograph, a remarkable new type of X-ray apparatus, is helping to heal old war wounds for ex-servicemen at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. England. Its rays can pick out a section of the body at any depth from the surface, and photograph that layer- entirely by itself, clear of anything in front of or behind it. The. “brain” of the machine is a sft. double-barrelled pendulum througn which the rays pass. As it swings'over the patient’s body it regulates the angle of the rays, and these blur all other parts of the body except the layer for which the mechanism is set.

In this way, a bullet or piece of shrapnel can be localised from all angles and the condition of surrounding tissues made clear—-a result previously impossible of achievement. Knowledge of whether the foreign object lies clean or in an abscess makes all the difference in operating technique.

In one soldier’s lung recently, the Tomograph revealed an infected cavity, in the middle of which was lodged an inch piece of shrapnel.

The man did not know it was there. He had had no trouble with it for more than 20 years. Now it has been successfully removed and the lung has healed. The Tomograph is German in origin and cost £lOOO. It is one of two in Britain, the other being owned by the British Legion. The woman doctor-radiologist in charge of the X-ray department at Queen Mary’s, said: “Fresh cases come in every day of ex-Servicemen complaining of wounds which show only a small, completely healed scat’ on the surface.

“Rays reveal the damage within. Often it is a hidden sinus, or pocket of infection, which sprays outwards in all directions.

“Opaque injections when photographed tell us exactly the course the poison is taking.”