PAIN STOPPED BY SILK.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 119, 21 May 1908, Page 6

PAIN STOPPED BY SILK.

LONDON SURGEON'S NEW

METHOD.

One of the great problems which, have hitherto defied surgical skill 'has recently been solved by a well-known London surgeon. The new operation, described by the originator, Professor W. Sampson Handley, of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, in the Lancet, is a, method for supplying channels for lymph circulation in limbs whose lymphatic vessels have been destroyed by cancer growth. The lymphatic circulation of the body is carried on by a vast nuaaber of, minute vessels like veins, vraichj collect the lymph from all parts of the bodyC Any stoppage of ftiese vessels which prevents the free circulation of ' the lymph will result in the parts below the stoppage becoming practically water-logged, the condition resembling that which follows the obstruction of veins. j According to Dr Handley, in .about! One case in six after the operation for breast cancer, the channels through j which the lymph supply of Che, arm is returned to the body are destroyed, the condition resulting being known as "brawny arm." Extremely painful, the swollen and practically paralysed limb adds largely to the other terrible sufferings' of• the cancer victim. WHAT RESEARCH, SHOWS. Dr Handler's operation consists of implanting silken threads in the tissues under the skin of the swollen arm. These, threads extend from the wrist to the armpit, Dr Handley, in using simple silk threads, relies on'the capillary action of- the silk fibres to direct the lymph up the arm until it meets the healthy tissues about the armpit, where the uninjured lymph vessels can carry it away. I Experience in the Cancer Research Laboratories of the Middlesex Hospital has shown Dr Handley that silk thread so imbedded will remain practically intact and unabsorbed, retaining its capillary power of drawing | back to the circulation through its > fibres the lymph which had collected in the limb and had, since the destruc- j tion of^ its vessels, no other means of , return. \

This capillary force or power is a little understood natural phenomenon which will cause any fluid to flow up any minute tube the lower . end of which is immersed in the fluid. In the case of the silk -threads the minute spaces between the silk . fibres form separate capillary tubes, along which the lymph gradually mounts until the upper ends of the threads are reached. In a recent case in which Dr Handley tried his operation the patient had had a cancer removed five years ago, and during the past three years the swelling, hardness, paralysis and pain in the arm had been increasing. Four weeks after the introduction of the threads the pain had entirely disappeared, the paralysis had largely passed off, and the arm had returned practically to its normal size.