The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-06-16
REPAIRING AN ARTERY.
a n~emnrkable Surgical Feat That
Was Long Thought to he an
ImnoaaihiIitY.

In recent medical archives in the
library OF st. Petersburg is an account
Of a most wonderful operation per-
formed by Kamtsky, one Of the great
est surgeons of his time, an operation
like which no other is recorded, says
the Philadelphia Inquirer. Poitinkosh,
a rich farmer, cattle raiser and REIN
deer farmer, residing north Of st. Pc
tersburgh, suffered an injury to the
upper end Of the right thigh, caused by
being violently hurled from his sleigh,
the latter having struck a stump. The
farmer in falling was jagged by a snag
(which struck about two inches below
the fold Of the flank, causing a torn,
bleeding, gaping wound Of about four
inches in length, directly downward
and in a line over the femoral artery
(the large artery which supplies the en-
tire leg with blood), the latter vessel
having been laid bare and severely
bruised in the wreck, nc large vessels
having been torn.
Kamtsky, with the great wisdom Of
a world of experience, wisely appre-
hended the possible results Of this
peculiar wound, and for the next
"a hours he spent every min
ute Of his time, valuable as it was,
working with chemical fire, molten
substances and apparatus Of divers
kinds until finally the object Of his eff
forts was finished, a small hollow,
elastic, c~olorless tube, about five inches
long, the composition of which is not
recorded, consequently not known. In
10 hours after his task was finished
careful scrutiny of the injured limb
revealed a slightly blush tint, scarce
ly noticeable, on the end Of the great
toe. This was the signal for operation
to the surgeon, and the stockman was
Immediately taken to the operating
room, where, in order to arrest oncom-
ing gangrene, he was subjected to an
odd and experimental operation.
After the patient was anesthetized
the wound was uncovered, carefully
CLEANED, and the tissue carefully
pushed and dissected away from the
arge artery, exposing about three and
'one-half inches of bruised vessel, ready
to disintegrate. A clamp was placed
on the artery an inch above where nor
NAL sound tissue began; then he cut
the artery at the junction of the
bruised and sound tissue, and, care
fully drawing the mysterious tube
from it's aseptic hiding place, he
slipped the cut, round end Of the YES
sci into it about an inch, being exceed
ingly careful while so doing to keep
the hollow tube collapsed and empty,
so as to avoid all danger produced by
the entrance of air,
Repeating the same process at the
lower end Of the artery, he inserted the
tube into the end of the vessel about
the same distance as the upper enN lay
in the tube. Then gently releasing the
lower clamp, he allowed the tube tbhil
with blood from che portion Of tbs 5es-
sells below. Then the final test me
when he gently and steadily rem Ned.
the clamp above the tube, thus estab-
fishing an unbroken channel which
would carry the blood to its NORMAL
distribution. A slight pouching ds the
tube at first caused some fear ais to
whether it were strong enough to
stand the pressure of the heart waive of
blood as the latter pulsated through
its new channel. This latter defect
was overcome, however, when thg tube
was laid in the bed of the bruised ex-
sected portion and the external sup
port of the muscles and tissues gave it
sufficient strength to overcome the
pressure of the blood stream. The
wound was carefully closed, the parts
set at rest and results awaited. In SO
hours the blue tint had disappeared
from the toe and the color of the skin
of the leg changed from a pale ashy to
a pink.
Two months afterwards the patient
was attending his everyday duties as
formerly, suffering no inconvenience
whatever from his wound, Five years
afterward the patient died of acute
pneumonia and a postmortem exam
nation of the seat of the wound re-
vealed a strong, firm plastic compost
tion tube, Immediately in the "situ" OF
the composition tube, the latter having
been absorbed by the blood, not, how
ever, before the lymphatics had so en-
lcysted it, just as a bullet becomes en-
! cysted in the body after months of
time, to the extent that when the tube
was eaten away by the blood this
fbrous coat answered the original
plan of circulation.