RECORD SURGICAL OPERATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 13 September 1911, Page 5

RECORD SURGICAL OPERATION.

Dr. S. W. Frauenthal, an eminent American surgeon, used a man’s shinbone, on July 13th to make a new log for a woman. The grafting was most successful. The woman’s temperature is normal to-day, and there is every indication that she will soon have as sound a leg as any nature overmade. A section of the woman’s shinbone, eight inches long, was removed, leaving part of the bone remaining at the top and bottom to give an anchorage for the new bone. This was cut a fraction of an inch longer than the piece removed, and was hammered into position and held firmly by pressure at both ends. The skin was stitched, leaving an open wound measuring an inch and a half, which was closed later by grafting skin from a patient’s hips and back. After the operation, while the patient continued unconscious, she was lifted up and made to bear heavily on the new leg, which snapped into a tighter connection. Dr. Frauenthal says that the new bone will grow into the remains of the old at the top and bottom jointures, and as flesh gathers around and the blood resumes its circulation it will become an integral part of the limb without a sign of lameness. This is the first time this operation has been performed on a human patient in America, and it is believed to be without a parallel in the world’s surgical annals.