TRIUMPH IN SURGERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRIUMPH IN SURGERY

| WONDERFUL OPERATION TUMOUR ON THE BRAIN Working all day a team of five doctors and surgeons, including a famous eye specialist, recently successfully performed at the London Hospital one of the most delicate surgical operations ever attempted. The patient, a school teacher, was admitted to the hospital with a tumour at a particularly inaccessible part of the brain. He was going blind, and it was feared that eventually the tumour would have spread to other parts of the brain. As the result of this marvellous operation the tumour was removed and the patient's sight restored. A hospital official stated: " The operation is a result of a new technique and the great progress which has been made in brain surgery. Prior to the discovery of this technique, to have attempted to operate on the man's brain would have probably ended fatally. It was one of the most complicated operations, needing the constant attention of a team of five doctors, and frightfully expensive. Practically the whole working day was taken over the operation, entailing great patience. " The operation started in the morning, and by means of diathermic current the tissues of the brain were completely broken through to get to the tumour. The great danger was haemorrhage—a trouble which prevented advance in brain surgery years ago—and great care was taken to prevent this. " By the new technique the diathermic current, gradually went through the cells, breaking them, but healing them again, as it passed on its way to the base of the trouble. Before the operation started the patient's blood bad been tested and cast in one of the four groups, so that, in the event of a transfusion becoming necessary, somebody in the same blood group was at hand to give blood."