The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-14
HAIRPIY a SURGERY TOOL.
Valuable in Emergency for Many
Things BESIDES Cleaning Pipe
Stems.
From the New York Press.

From the New York Press.
Woman, be she new or old-fashioned
can put hairpin to various uses-shoe-
buttoning. cleaning her husbands pipe.
mending a clock. picking locks. and even
plumbing. In every phase of the house
keepers art it is an invaluable instru-
ment. This is well known. But it IS
not generally known that a hairpin can
serve as a valuable surgical instrument
in many emergencies.
The sudden necessity of performing
tracheOtOmy, or opening the windpipe to
prevent a child suffering from Group
from choking to death may often arise
when the surgeon is unprovided with
"tracheotomy tubes" which are necessary
to keep the wound from becoming stopped
up. If the opening is made with pocket
knife or scissors, which is not par
ticularly difficult, ii will cause relief for
a few seconds, and then the wound will
stop itself up ana the process of suffoca~
ton rapidly progress.
But if a hairpin is taken and bent so
that an inch of the bent portion may 60
in through the wound, and the two ends
be outside on the neck the wound will be
kept open and breathing proceed as per-
fdctly as through the most approved
silver tracheotomy tube.
This emergency is one that frequently
happens. and the operation is likely to
be necessary at short notice, when the
proper tube is frequently not at hand.
To use the hairpin neatly the surgeon
should take time to sterilize the hairDin
by holding it in a gas jet a minute. The
sharp points which are to lie outside
should be bent into little rings, and a tape
or string be attached to keep it in place.
The hairpin can be utilized in many
other conditions to keep a wound open,
in an abcess which has recently been
opened.
Sometimes it is necessary to open into
the bladder without delay, and in locali-
ties far removed from access to proper
surgical instruments. In this case. after
the opening is made by any kind of
knife, the hairpin can be inserted just a 5
IN the case or the tracneOIOmy wound, and
if sterilized is harmless and extremely
useful for keeping the wound open.
If a great blood vessel is cut and no liga-
lures are at hand, a hairpin can be used
to stop the bleeding. If an important ar
terry in the leg or arm were cut an i'm
prOVised bandage or tOurniquet would be
used to stop the bleeding, but if the yes
sells of the neck were severed no tOurni-
quet would prevent the patient from bleed
ing to death. All that would be necessary
would be to cut through the skin with
pocket knife, and then force a hairpin
carefully sterilized by a match or a gas
jeD behind the vessels, and then bring
ing the ends of the hairpin together to
tighten until the bleeding stop by twisting
the ends together.
In the case of a gunshot wound the hair
pin is the most convenient and useful kind
of a probe, and, instead Of using an in
fected surgical probe, which has been in
all sorts of dangerous and infectious
wounds, the surgeon can safely borrow
hairpin, and, as in the other cases, hold
I q
and then follow the course of the bullet,
absolutely certain that he is doing no
harm and not exposing the patient to risk
of infection.
If the first surgeon who probed the
wound of President Garfield had done this,
instead of using dirty probe, the wound
probably would have closed up without
trouble and pyaem-a never would have oc-
Cured.
The hairpin will give delicate sense of
touch, and, if the bent end is directed
{ freuuentlV
the end and pull it out with much less
difficulty than complicated bullet forceps,
decorating the tissues often without touch
ing or moving the bullet.
In fractures of the nose, external or in
ternal, it is necessary to apply a little con-
tinuous force, not great, but elastic and
firm. For that purpose nothing is better
than several halrpins, which can be bent
to exactly the right angle and fitted to the
nose, and are tempered so as to hold their
spring and elasticity. They can be attach
ed to pieces of pasteboard or soft wood,
and will produce better results than COM
plicated and expensive apparatus.
The original instrument used for the
operation Of hairlip was shaped like a
If a child pushes a bean or button up
it's nose, no instrument has ever been in
vented so exactly fitted to extract it as
If a cinder falls in the eye, if with one
hand the eyelid is averted, with a hair
pin in the other the irritating substance
can be wiped out by the blunt end of
the instrument without any possibility
/ of doing harm to the eye.
If a dressing needs to be stiffened, as in
/ bandages over fingers, the wrist or other
joints, few hairpins can in moment
| be bent to the desired angle and in
| corporated in the bandages.
The last use which may be mentioned
/ is in dentistry. To properly extract a
/ tooth great force is not so essential as
| a proper grip on the tooth. With a hairpin
| hooked under an offending "molar' far
! less difficulty win be found than in other
! amateur methods.
! All this goes to indicate that in surgery,
1 as in other matters, little common sense
and simple mechanical skill will often act
! as a substitute for much book knowledge
| and nickel-plated instruments.
Man is said TO be the only creature
/ that shaves. But this is not So A South
| American bird called the "motmot" ac-
| tually begins shaving on arriving at ma
/ turity. Naturally adorned with long blue
/ in their natural state, but with it's beak
/ nips off the web on each side for a space