SURGICAL PRACTICE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 17, 1 November 1935, Page 8

SURGICAL PRACTICE

A MODERN WONDER. A wonder of modem surgery is revealed in “The Lancet” by Dr. Paul White, the American specialist, in an account of an operation on the heart which may, he says, lead to the complete euro of what was formerly regarded as a hopeless disease. This is an inflammatory thickening of the membrane surrounding the heart, leading to progressive deterioration of its functions, accompanied by severe dropsy. The first case which Dr. White describes, carries, he says, the distinction of being the first surgical cure of this condition in the United States. A girl of eighteen was being slowly crippled by the disease, when Dr. L. D. Churchill, returning to the United States after studying at a German clinic, suggested an operation. His method was to remove the thickened membrane and to divide a hand of tissue compressing the great vein that returns the blood to the heart.

After a stormy few days the patient began to improve, and now, nearly seven years after the operation, she is in excellent health.

Other cases described concern girls of ten and eleven, a youth of nineteen and a housewife aged thirty, each of whom were cured by a similar operation.