Preventing Strokes By Surgery

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 3

Preventing Strokes By Surgery

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, August 27. There was one positive way of reducing the susceptibility of men to cardiovascular disease—by the injection of female hormones.

But no-one was likely to accept this treatment, because of the risk of loss of sexual characteristics, Professor Charles Rob said in Dunedin today. Hence the importance of preventive surgery to forestall arteriosclerosis and strokes.

This- is the' speciality of Professor Rob who is professor of surgery at Rochester, New York. He will be in Dunedin until September 11 giving a course of post-graduate lectures.

“Blood-vessel surgery is becoming more and more common because of this very prevalent disease, which is the cause of some three to five times as many deaths as cancer,” he said. His particular interest is the treatment of persons

suffering from strokes which, he said, are sometimes caused by a blockage in blood vessels in the neck.

Professor Rob specialises in an operation involving the cutting away of the blocked or hardened artery, and replacing it with a plastic tube. “In this, and similar ways, people who have suffered minor warning strokes can be helped before they suffer a major one bringing permanent paralysis.”