Mother finds key to nerve test

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33516, 23 April 1974, Page 8

Mother finds key to nerve test

By

LAWRUXCE K. ALTMAN)

Ah astute observation by a mot her in Ireland of her son's injured hand has led an Irish doctor to report a simple new diagnostic test of the function of damaged nerves. The test is based on the known fact that the skin of the normal hand wrinkles when immersed in warm water and on the previoush unappreciated observation that under the same circumstances the skin served b\ a damaged nerve stays smooth. The mother. Mis Gwen Freehill, recalled in an interview with The New York Times how she had made the discovery as "a stroke of luck” after her four-year-old son. Alan, had fallen on a milk bottle on the front porch of their home. The ] broken glass severed tendons and nerves in two finger:.

Mrs Freehill noticed the lack of normal wrinkling: when Alan finished bathing and as she was about to cut his fingernails. She kept observing the change as Alan’s nerve injury healed. Three of the fingers on the injured hand were wrinkled after prolonged exposure to water. But the two damaged fingers were smooth. After Alan had an operation, Mrs Freehill noticed that the. injured fingers : began to wrinkle again following immersion in warm .water and that the effect became more pronounced each time Alan.bathed. Mrs Freehill said she did not realise then the significance of her observation. She said she thought the wrinkling might be an indication that the fingers were returning to normal. “I was very worried about Alan and on the lookout for any sign.” Mrs Freehill said. Accordingly, she reported . her observation to Dr Seamus O’Riain. the plastic surgeor who was caring for Alan. Doctor intrigued Dr O’Riain told Mrs Freehill that, although he had never heard of the phenomenon. it intrigued him. Dr O’Riain set about testing “a number of patients” he treated as a consultant plastic surgeon at University College, Temple Street ! Children’s Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital and Dr Stee- ■ ven’s Hospital in Dublin, to

determine the effect of warm-water immersion on their hands. He leported in the "British Medical Journal” that the simple test — it required nothing more than a basin of warm water for 30 minutes — was “objective, accurate, and shows not only sensory loss, but also the progress of sensory recovery”. After such testing. Dr O’Riain. said, “nerve-dam-aged skin does not shrivel: it remains smooth”. Dr O'Riains report said the new test was "of much more value than traditional subjective tests, which depend not only on the patient’s co-operation and concentration, but also on his intelligence”. Further. Dr O’Riain pointed out. the new test requires no special equipment, which is necessary for some existing objective tests. Mrs Freehill said she had been unaware that her original observation had led to a new medical test until Dr O’Riain got in touch with her later.

“I’m delighted and very thrilled that it worked out so well. I hope it helps someone else,” she said.

(Copyright. “New York imes” news service.