ADVANCES IN SURGERY

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28445, 27 November 1957, Page 9

ADVANCES IN SURGERY

Auckland Man Attends Three Congresses (New Zealand, Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 26. Western doctors should make the large and growing -surgical literature in Russian and Chinese more accessible to themselves, said an Auckland surgeon, Mr Douglas Robb, on his return from three international surgical congresses. Some “nice work” from Peking, was presented at the congress of the international Society of Surgeons' I 'at Mexico City, he said. The large Russian delegation, including several women professors, made impressive presentations. even though they were a little hard to evaluate.

The congress at Mexico City had been conspicuous for the volume and value of presentations and it was disappointing that the number of British participants was small. Mr Robb said. Mr Robb also attended the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons at Atlantic City and the congress of the PanPacific Surgical Association at Honolulu. A feature of the Atlantic City meeting was the continuous “live” television broadcast of operations being performed at the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. complete with running commentary. “They were very easy to follow,” said Mr Robb. Films from all over the world were shown.

Surgery of the heart and blood vessels continued to be the liveliest subject, in which great progress was being made. There were many developments in other fields, such as cancer, although no dramatic ones.

The use of mechanical bypasses of the heart and lungs during operations was now regular practice in a large number of centres in the United States, said Mr Robb There were machines of many designs, but refinements were still coming out.