Salt Lake Telegram | 1921-08-07 | Page 13 | Splicing the Ner Ves

SPLICING THE NERVEs NERVES S I By WOODS HUTCHINSON M M. D. D Out Ou t of ot the horrors of ot wax war c come me occasional oc oc- oc blessings of ot The tie tie- ing ot pt of arteries an absolute necessity of ot almost every surgical l operation was first done on the tho battlefield And d I now no from the tho recent calamity are Just coming reports report of ot newly won skill in inthe tho the repair of ot wounded or severed nerves It has of or course long been possible for tor surgeons eons to pick up two ends of ot ofa ofa ota a severed nerve nerv and by v careful bringing together r and skillful stitching stitch stitch- ing make th them m unite and r restore the nerve for tor the pas passage ge of of ot currents and In a good percentage of ot cases messages Even if ir a a. short length of ofa a nerve had been entirely destro destroyed d. d th tho arm or limb could bo be bent or orthe ortho ortho tho the ends of ot the nervo nerve trunk cu cut t obliquely so as to bring them easily in contact and get good god union But in the in-the the terrific shell wounds of ot this war two or r even ven three inches pf pt the nerve norve destro destroyed ed or swept aw away or strangled in a huge hugo mass of or scar tissue and more heroic l means of ot filling rUling the gap had to be resorted to This was no less than thin the transplanting transplanting trans trans- planting of ot a L graft gratt of ot nerve neno trunks from somo some other part of ot the patients patient's I body Usually some somo of ot tho the largest of ot th the nerves of ot the skin of ot tho the leg or orthe ortho ortho tho the arm were were taken for tOr this p purpose both because they could bo be easily got at and because their thell removal remo would leave no paralysis but only a mod- mod orate crate sized area of or numbness pf pt the tho skin which would gradually grow less 1 I as new twigs grow Into it from surrounding surrounding sur sur- r rounding nerve tr trunks Wherever possible these grafts wore were m made de double treble or even quadruple so so 50 as ns to supply as many nervo nerve cords or wires across th the gap gapas gapas gapas as were in the the original nerve nene cable One of ot tho greate greatest t difficulties in fri the tho repair of ot war war wounded nerves was that the llio cut ends of or the tho n nerve trunk would b by the time that In tho the wound had subsided be turned into thickened bulbs consisting largely large large- l ly o of scar tissue with very few tow nerve nervo cords or wires left lett in them This method of ot transplantation grafting met this difficulty by permitting the surgeon to cut away yay these thesa bulbs and andEO go EO high enough up up and down the nerve cable on each side id of ot the break to reach healthy live wires and give a a. a fair chance ot of real union A number ot of pf these ingenious and delicate nerve grafts grafts' have now been carried out with most encouraging g gre re results so far tar though of course the tho restoration of ot the working of a severed severed sev soy ered nerve ve cable can n seldom eldom be perfect per per- feet And It will take tak months mon hs or even evena per a 3 year or r more to determine how far tar the tho commencing returns of ot fe feeling and movement will ultimately grow I What hat makes the p process of ot recovery ery cry so slow is that thai each tiny nerve wire severed has to grow down from the point where it was cut across and literally burrow its its its' way down through the Hie repaired nene nerve cable abl or or trunk at atthe atthe the rate of ot about a n. sixteenth pf of an anI an anInch anInch I Inch ch a d day clear to tho the very muscles m and skin of ot the limb below bolow before movement and nd feeling can be pro properly Jerly restored