ELECTRIC AID FOR BONESURGERY.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

ELECTRIC AID FOR BONESURGERY.

T]i;i 1 u ill live v.hen properly implanted lias I teen known Immure than hall a century, and wonderful t<:»ls c! li:>iM'-si:r;.!yrv have saved lives and liinhs. Hut, says a writer in Ihe Kdison Monthly (New Yorki, progress in the form of has remained practically ;u a standstill until the development of '.lie motor-driven hone-set. I*or, "with hone-e'itin-stnimeuts restricted to the strainht saw, tin' chain-saw. and the chisel, ii was exceedingly dillieult to work anions the muscles without injuring the surrounding tissue. h was ciiunllv diliicult to cut hone ailing exactly defined lines, and the danger ot splinterim* was alwaxs -present." So, we are tohL the electro-operative hone-set develoned liy Dr Fred 11. Alhee introduces a new era in And it is Irom ])r A Mice's recent hook, "lioue(irait Sur-ery." that The Kdi-on .Monthly summarises a hriet description ot the apparatus and its u-e in homtransplant inlc. Anions the achievements o| Dp Alhee s device "are the

I siiceesslul treat mont lII' fractures. Miiich nii<l( r (.•tlicr methods had failed in unite. the strengt 11(• 11 i11l; (if deformed spines, the correct ion <,l" clubfoot. Mutiny; a fracture of the head oi' the lemur, rebuilding a shattered jaw, and the correction of hip-( 1 islocation." The hone-set "includes, in addition to the necessary electrical connections and controlling appliances, an electric motor mounted m a sterilisabie shell, a hone-reamer, a small saw. a circular twin-saw. an angular saw. an extra small cross-cut saw. an adjustable guard and spray, a dowel-shaper a long taper hurr for drilling the head tlu ' lemur, a long t\v is I-. Iri 11. and a spanner. Contrasted with this is Fare's ■MIU-, a straight-edged instrument, the artiste embellishments of which have received as much attention as the snv ,ts,>ll - !l "' usefulness of these instiuments in boiie-surgerv is .shown by the following brief aecoiim of several cases abridged from Dr .Albee's book - "In. the treatment <.f Pott's tlto motor-driven circular snv is used lor cutting a j)iece oi' bone from th" tibia, to be gratted into tin. vertebrae, " licit have been split for the purpose. J. 10 gralt, winch is cut in a shape to conform with the curve of the deformed spine, is held in place by ligatures of kangaroMendon until the bone-amalga-lnation is accomplished. "The treatment of paralvtie dislocation ot the hip may he nadilv understood by reference to the acconipanvii... II Initiation. It. will be seen that the head of the femur is out of place because of the shallowness cf the hi')socket. The third view shows how the greatly stretched ligament has been reefed while the rim of the socket liar been split to make room for a honewedge. 1 his wedge, which is cut with the motor-saw, either from the tibia oi tlu. great trochanter, is tied into the space with kangaroo-tendon. The advantage of this method of deepening the socket over the removal of cartilage and bo,no from the socket itself lies in the fact that it preserves uninjured all the joint cartilage; further, the deepened socket is ant to result in a marked limitation of motion. "Tn uniting fractures which have resisted other methods of bringing about union, the broken ends arc approximated, and the twin-saw, cutting deepiy ' enough to include the marrow," forms a * gutter of about one-half inch width. ' This is considerably longer on one sida of the fracture than the other. The short length of bone is removed and the longer section is reset in its place, the extended end bridging the fracture. The smaller piece of bone is cut into pegs, and with the small drill dowelholes for those pegs are made through the graft and the bone. "In a fracture of the neck of the femur which had failed to unite, the long burr was used to drill the dowelhole, and a piece of bone cut frcm the tibia and shaped with the dowciling ?n----strument was driven in. Although the patient was sixty years old. the operation resulted in firm union." "Quite as radical as this method of setting fractures is the technique for repairing shattered jaws. It is reported that 500 soldiers with sections oi" the lower jaw shot away were b n ing treated at one time in an army hospital at Dusscldorf. The twin-saw is used to cut a gutter in the uninjured sections of the jaw. The graft itself is cut from the tibia, shaped to preserve the contour of the jaw, and made long enough to bridge the gap caused by the removal of shattered bone. This is set in the gutter and tied with kangarootendon passed through holes drilled with the small burr."