A “DARNING EGG”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1940, Page 8

A “DARNING EGG”

FOUND FOR VEIN SURGERY. DEVELOPMENT OF NEW METHOD. Development of a method of blood vessel surgery in which sugar rods are used as “darning eggs" in sewing together the delicate tissues has been announced at the University of Chicago, says the “New York Times.” The announcement accompanied the award of the Harry Ginsburg Memorial Prize to Sidney Smith, jun., university medical student, who developed the method which, scientists believe, promises to simplify an extremely difficult operation. Still in its experimental state and thus far confined to animals, the method provides a means of suturing ruptured blood vessels so simply that scientists said any competent surgeon could use it. The technique is similar to one worked out more than thirty years ago by Dr. Alexis Carrel, then visiting Professor of Physiology at the university. When a housewife darns a torn sock, she places a “darning egg” behind the hole to hold the fabric taut for stitching. With Mr Smith’s surgical technique, the two ends of the artery are threaded on to a slender rod of sugar coated with a thin film of bland oil to support the tissues. Thus held together, the two ends can be sewn with “over and over” stitches. Different sized rods are prepared for different sized arteries. When the clamps have been removed and the blood flow'resumes, the sugar rod dissolves in ten to fifteen seconds, and the circulation proceeds normally. “The technique of blood vessel surgery as developed earlier was so different that it has been little used,” said Dr. Anton J. Carlson, Physiology Professor, under whose direction Mr Smith developed the method. Dr. Carlson said the technique has application for three fields of surgery—repairing accident cases, removal of emboli, blood clots which block circulation, and further explorations in experimental research surgery. Mr Smith, who plans to take his M.D. degree from Rush Medical College soon, is twenty-eight years old, married, and an experienced aeroplane pilot.