TALENTED SURGERY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20928, 6 January 1938, Page 8

TALENTED SURGERY

OPERATION ON A NOSE The wonders of modern plastic surgery are revealed by the return to Sydney recently of a well-known S. Iney girl who underwent ? series of remarkable operations in New Zealand whereby her nose, destroyed by a motor accident, has been completely c >tored, without any of the disfigurement which seemed inevitable. After the accident, which occurred on

July 14, Miss Beatrice Metcalfe, of Romeville, suffered the loss of the nasal bone and cartilege, and considerable loss of skin, with resultant puckered keloid scars, running down the nose. Immediately after the accident, in July, Miss Metcalfe was taken to a Sydney hospital, where she stayed for three weeks, and was operated on once in the hope that the bone of the nose could be re-set. This proved impossible at the time, as the bone was completely smashed. All that could be done was to straighten the nose. Early in September she left for New Zealand to be under the charge of a famous plastic surgeon, who was in Sydney for some years, but has returned to New Zealand. Entering hospital immediately on arrival in Wellington, Miss Metcalfe was operated on the next day, when some skin was cut from the arm and grafted on to the side of the nose. Hardly any pain was felt by the patient, and she remained in hospital for a fortnight. After a fortnight outside, she was able to travel round Wellington, the only discomfort being that the nose had to be kept covered. The next operation involved taking bone from a rib and grafting in a cartilege and bone to make a bridge for the nose. In every operation the doctor studied Miss Metcalfe's photograph closely, and a fortnight later as he had made the nose slightly too long, he cut away the end of the bone, and grafted on two more bones to form the desired shape. The remarkable fact about these operations was the lack of pain. Great difficulty in such surgery is encountered by the doctor in removing the rib. as it is exactly above the lung, and also in grafting the bone, as it is necessary to lift the skin graft.