NOVEL OPERATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17152, 30 September 1926, Page 11

NOVEL OPERATION

RIBS BEAT WITH HEART SYDNEY PATIENT „ SYDNEY, September 23. An operation with an clement of novelty, al least for Australia, has just been performed at the Itoyal Hospital on a woman who was suffering from heart disease. The hear! had adhered to the walls of the chest —a condition described in the medical world as adherent, pericardium —and, consequently was unable to beat freely. Difficulty in breathing and dropsy were the result, threatening the patient with an early death. To give relief, the woman was ope rated on, and Ihe ribs eul through al tin* cartileges, so as to allow the chest to fall in. ft sounds startling to the layman, but the ribs move only about a-quarter or an eight of an inch, and, being free, literally heat with the heart. The operation was a success, and the patient has improved considerably, although she is not well enough to leave tlie hospital. Two months ago a .similar operation was performed on a man For the first time in the history of the Itoyal Prims' Alfred Hospital, lie was relieved sufficiently to be able to walk out of the institution, lie is not able to work, but it is not- considered that the fact of his ribs being 'unhiched" exposes him to any particular danger.