SURGERY FOR CONSUMPTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 134, 29 February 1908, Page 11

SURGERY FOR CONSUMPTION.

HOW AN OPERATION WAS PERFORMED.

■-■.Opening the closed' lung -'cavities of the cojisuniptivo is ' the keynote of tho new surgical', treatment. of' pulmonary ' tuberculosis/ A 'well-known London surgeon, who .has .had great success, with the. now<> treatment,- has explained,; the method used in operating in an advanced caso recently. "No local treatment,'>ho said, "can'reach a closed cavity in tho lung, since till'inhaled vapours, eto., aro drawn into tho healthy portions of the lung, whero they aro not needed. By opening the'cavities through the clicst wall they can not only bo drained, but local applications can readily 'bo mado. Hitherto it has not'been considered feasible to! cut into tho lung on account of' the tremendous blooding that follows. With my. method of cauterising tho lung no appreciable: bleeding takes place." The new: cauterising instrument used in : these; operations is most simple. Boiling water,'tho'testing power, is poured into a ■funnel' held by the nurso, and runs along a rubber tube to a loop mado of flexible leaden .pipe, the of which the surgeon holds; When a cut is mado through lung tissue, tho lead.en'. loop, which can bo bent into . any shape, and is raised to tho exact temperature necessary to.cause tho shrivelling up of the blood-vessels without destroying too much tissue, is made to follow along tho course of t-hii - knife.

In the. case in which tho operation was performed; two incisions wero made, ono at tho baso of tlio shoulder-blade and' the other in tho arm-pit. . Portions of' tho ribs were removed, and tho cavities wero opened. All bleeding was easily stopped by the-new■ cautery, and , tho cavities were thoroughly drained. According to latest reports,- forty-eight hours after tho operation tho patient was doing well.