Synthetics Replace Diseased Arteries

Press, Volume C, Issue 29555, 3 July 1961, Page 13

Synthetics Replace Diseased Arteries

The replacement of by veMel# 1 . aad ot h« synthetics, to save limbs which v.-ould otherwise have to be ■■•mDutated wss described last night by Mr J. W Ardagh a city surgeon who had Just arrived home after three months obser ing in London hospitals. “Replacement of arteries started a few years ago, but at first it was thought that the best material was an artery from another person, sue* as an accident victim," Mr Ardagh said. "Artery . anas’ were formed, in order to provide a satisfactory supply. But it was soon found that the transplanted arteries ouickly deteriorated and themselves became diseased. “A few operations have already been carried out in New Zealand with synthetic arteries, but with so many more cases in big populations overseas the surgeons there nave had more opportunity for trying the new methods and materials. It was to see what they were doing that I went on my trip.” The normal progression of the disease, unless action was taken, was that the inside lining of the artery degenerated and calcified material was laid down in the artery wall Mr Ardagh said. The calcified material eventually accumulated to such a degree that a blood clot formed and the supply of blood to the rest of the limb was cut off resulting in gangrene and, up to now, in the amputation of the limb—usually a leg When a diseased section of the artery was replaced by a material such as teryiene which provoked no reaction from the body, a lining of living tissue was soon laid down inside it by ordinary oody processes, and the limb could be expected to last for several years. The limiting

factor was. normally, that the diseased artery was a symptom of a general diseased condition of the arterial system, so that other less accessible vessels might also be affected. An alternative method of arterial surgery, known as "disobliteration.’’ was to “rebore” the existing vessel. When an artery was treated in this way, it subsequently tended to grow a healthy lining in place of the diseased one which had been removed. Mr Ardagh spent most of his time overseas in London, at St. Thomas's. St. Bartholomew’s. and Hammersmith

hospitals. One of the leading workers in arterial surgery whom he met there w-as Professor W. G. Taylor, professor of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, who has accepted an invitation by the Christchurch Hospital postgraduate committee to spend a fortnight here in September next year. On the way to London. Mr Ardagh. who was accompanied by Mrs Ardagh, spent several days in Bangkok, where the South-east Asia Treaty Organisation was in session. He has a particular interest in military matters, as he is a lieutenant-colonel < Territorial) in the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps.

Mr Ardagh visited the Continent and also Eire, where he paid a call on the little town in County Limerick from which he believes, his family takes its name. On his way home, he attended the New York conference of the American Medical Association, hearing it discuss, among other things, the Salk vaccine against poliomyelitis.