An Experiment in Skin Grafting.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3106, 17 January 1889, Page 3

An Experiment in Skin Grafting.

in surgery the operation of -plunting minute pieces 6f skin on the surface of a granulatingwoimd is well known, and has often been used with success to facilitate the completion of the healing process. Hitherto the operation has been confined in its application to the human subject; but an article by Mr T. Assheton Smith, veterinary surgeon, published iu" Hayes' Sporting News" Calcutta suggests the possibility of applying the method to tho lower animals. Mr Smith's experiment was performed on a pony which lmd by Borne accident skinned the near foreleg from the knee to the fetlock, The details of the treatment may be best givon in the writer's own words, as follows: "During the time the mare was under treatment, which was about two months, it appeared that the grafts " took" better as the wound advanced in age. I therefore consider it likoly that the want of success which attended my first efforts was due to (1) the freshness' of tho wound; (2) the coarse nature of the skin I was then employing, taken from the inside of a horse's thigh; and (8) lack of experience in the process, and of knowledge as to the best methods. On subsequently trying the skin of a frog and that of a chicken, for purposes of transplantation, I obtained some successful grafts from each; hut, as tho latter "took" more freely, I confined mysolf to its use exclusively, I will now proceed to describe what I found to be the best process, as follows:—By-way of preparation, the wound should bo dressed with an antiseptic, preferably a solution of bichloride of mercury (1 in 5,000) in water, firmly bandaged. and left for two or three days undisturbed, This will leyel the granulations, and obviate tho necessity of cauterization, which should be avoided. Then, having procured the chicken, aminuto point of skin from tho side of the body under the wiiig is raised with a fine forceps, snipped off with a pair of sharp scissors, and placed on the thumbnail. With a sharp scalpel, it is then devided into portions—tho smaller the better—which serve as grafts. The point on the wound where the skin is to bo renewed is gently scraped with the scalpel without drawing blood; and with the point of a silver needle or probe. the grafts 'are pressed in between the granulations. When a sufficient number have been applied the whole wound is freely powdered with iodoform, covered with a piece of guttapercha protective (which is non-adhesive), and over all a long bandage of bichloride gauzo is firmly rolled. In this state it is left undisturbed for a week. The appearance of a successful graft is unmistakeable, as it presents a characteristic small white speck with faint radiating lines.