THE ADVANCE OF SURGERY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 29, 14 April 1911, Page 5

THE ADVANCE OF SURGERY.

The most remarkable advance in medical surgery in recent years is in cases of treatment of wounds in the heart. No farther back than 1-896, it was commonly held that in the majority of cases injuries to the heart would not admit of any treatment. But now, owing to the skill and daring of modern surgery, it is possible to be shot or stabbed in the heart, under certain conditions, and still recover. In a lecture at the Middlesex Hospital, reported in the “British Medical Journal,” Dr. John BlandSutton makes some revelations astonishing to the layman. By exposing the heart and stitching up the wound, it has in recent years been found possible to save 35 per cent, of cases which in other days would have proved fatal. It has happened that bullets have traversed the heart completely, and the holes made by the entry and exit have been closed with stitches, and the patient’s life saved. In one case a’man was shot in the chest, but was not operated on until four months afterwards, when the bullet was found by means of the X-rays. The chest was opened and: the bullet, surrounded by a piece of the man’s shirt, was extracted with forceps. He recovered. Dr. Bland-Sutton’s interest in the treatment of injuries of the heart was awakened by an extraordinary assault which a drunken man made on his own heart. Some men were drinking in a beershop ; one of them, a lad of twenty, was playing with a loaded revolver,, and a companion made a bet with him that he, was afraid to shoot himself in the heart. The mad-hrained youth immediately fired tho revolver into his chest, and was brought into the hospital in a collapsed state. It was found that the bullet had ploughed a deep groove in the apex of the heart, torn away a piece of the diaphragm, and perforated the stomach. The lad died—but not from the injury to the heart. This made Dr. Bland-Sutton aware of the injuries the heart will put up with, and he has since found a good deal of confirmation of his views. His account of the operation is testimony to the daring of pre-sent-day surgeons. First of all a cutting is made in the chest and the heart exposed. The surgeon then looks for the wound. If it is not obvious, he gently compresses the vessels at the root of the heart, when the cavities fill, and the leaking spot is seen. Ho then closes the opening with stitches. Dr. BlandSutton gave one hint of the diflculty of the operation, hut it is a vivid one ; “It is not always an easy matter to pass stitches successfully through the wall of tho living heart, especially if it be beating tumultuously.”