BROKEN BONES NAILED

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 30

BROKEN BONES NAILED

DOCTOR'S NEW OPERATION SHORTER STAY IH HOSPITAL A new operation, in which two broken parts of the thigh bone near the hip socket are, nailed together to promote quick healing, was described to the American College of Surgeons. . The operation, appearing drastic in nature but regarded by surgeons as quicker and easier than the use of a plaster cast, was reported by Dr M. N. Smith-Petersen, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. As a result of the operation patients with such fractures of the femur, or thigh bone, have been dismissed from hospital and sent back to work in from four to five weeks, while the ordinary plaster cast method necessitates about six months in hospital, Dr Smith-Peter-sen declared. THREE-INCH NAIL. The insertion of the nail was.reported as a comparatively simple procedure. An incision is made over the hip joint, and the upper end of 'the femur .exposed, A thin wire is their driven lengthwise through the broken parts to act as a guide for the nail. The nail itself, of rustless steel, about 3in' long with flanged edges, giving it great strength, is. then driven in to join the broken parts. At the end of four of five weeks the patient is able to walk again, and the joint is stronger than before, the Boston- surgeon, declared, since the weight placed on the bone is distributed evenly through the' upper ball which fits in the hip. socket and is not thrown en-. tirely on the healed. part.- Removal of the nail is-not necessary, according to a Philadelphia surgeon who has performed the operation, although it can be removed simply after the break is entirely healed. WARNING OF HOARSENESS. Dr Chevalier-Jackson, Philadelphia, famous for his removal of foreign objects from the lungs with a bronchoscope, issued a warning in an address beore, the college’s clinical congress “ that hoarseness in an adult, even if intermittent or apparently recent, means cancer of the larynx until it is proven otherwise.” At.the present time 90 per cent, of all patients suffering with cancer of the larynx die from it, ne added, although it “ is a disease curable in 92 per cent, of the cases.” The essential step, Dr Jackson added, is to catch the case early, and he issued advice to the general public that “ curing cancer is like putting out a fire; easy early, impossible late.”