The Topeka state journal., 1908-07-02
DOCTORS ARE HERE
Golden Belt Medical Society
Meets in Topeka.
One of the Most Active AssOcia-
tfOns in Kansas.
MEMBERS SEE CLINICS.
Watch Surgeons Perform Op-
GRAFTON of Mento- o-Plexy.
One of Most Difficult Known to
Modern Surgery.

gan Its quarterly session here today |
with a good attendance from. all the |
towns along the line Of the Union Pa
cific railroad west from Topeka to Ellis
worth and also from many towns di- |
rectly north and south of here. The |
heavy rains of this week and the re-
cent floods which washed out the rail-
road tracks all over the state have
played havoc with the train schedules
and they are not yet back in regular
order. These facts all tended to cut
down the attendance today. but there
are at least 40 visiting doctors in the
city The Golden Belt is one of the
most active societies in the state and
there is great interest taken in its
meetings held four times every year
for the past 16 years. DR.. B. E. Ester
ley of this city is president of the So
ciety and DR.. Steadman of Junction
City is secretary.
The doctors spent the morning at
Christ hospital in attendance at a
clinic where two most difficult opera
tions were performed, one for cirrhosis
of the liver on a ranchman from the
western part of the state, and the other
the removal of a cancerous growth
from the intestines of a lady from a
neighboring town. DR.. w. F. Bowen
performed both operations and was as
sisted in the first by DIR. Otto Kiene
DIR. S. G. Stewart.
The case of the ranchman for con-
traction of the liver was a remarkable
one and its treatment is one of the mir
acles of modern surgery. The patient
is man about 90 years of age, of robust
physique, and while a drinking man,
yet his dissipation had affected only
his liver. When he entered the hospital
a few days ago he was suffering from
dropSy brought on by cirrhoSis of the
lower m hS
| twice their normal size and his trunk
was inflated to a size almost beyond
belief. His liver was contracted until
| the blood from the intestines was un-
able to pass through it in the course
| of circulation to the heart. The swell
| ing was reduced temporarily by treat
| ment and a diagnosis of the case re-
| suited in the decision to make new
passage or lateral around the liver for
| the circulation of the blood.
One of the hospital surgeons kindly
| interpreted the explanations of the
| operating surgeon to the State Journal
| reporter present at the clinic and eX-
\ planned the course of the operation.
| 1t was gruesome sight to the layman.
| this cutting a man open and handling
| his vital organs as Though they were
| part of the mechanism of an intricate
piece of machinery.
The surgeons will smile at this story
| of the operation. but it is faithful
| account and written so that the un-
| learned can follow it. The patient
succumbed to the anesthetic after
| struggle, and the instant his senses
4 left him the operating surgeon began
] his work. 1t was fascinating sight
to watch this cool, deft man quickly
| and surely make a long incision in
| the body of the patient at point just
i below and a little to the left of the
| stomach. In a moment he had half
dozen tweezers hanging like leeches to
the edges of the wound to hold 1t open
and stop the flow of blood. He used
| his fingers first to arrange things in
| ternally to his satisfaction and then
| wrapped a pair of tweezers in gauze
| and thrust them into the incision and
| stirred them around inside until he
had succeeded in making a passage
for that interrupted circulation. To
use a medical term, he performed the
| most difficult operation of mento-
| plexy. He rubbed the sides of the
liver with the gauZe and then re-
| moved the omentum, an apron of
fatty tissue that hangs down over the
liver, and sewed this apron to the
/ outer wall of the abdomen. The fric-
ton and the change in position of the
sells to afford a passage for the blood
around instead of through the liver
and thus relieve the congestion which
had brought about the dropsy or swell
ling of the limbs, body and vital
organs.
i In the course of the operation the
surgeon withdrew the omentum from
the wound and holding it in his hands.
carefully examined it. He then placed
it back in proper position and pro-
ceeded as calmly as a seamstress en-
gagged on a dress to sew the omentum
to the walls of the abdomen and then
sewed up the incision. The stitches
were taken with marvellous rapidity
and exactness.
While the patients trouble with his
liver will not be entirely cured, yet
this new passage for the circulation
!. will give him great relief and he can
go about again without the return of
this dropsy trouble. The liver will in
a measure resume its functions after
a rest from the overwork Of caring for
the circulation.
During all the process of the oper-
alton the only sound made by the pa
tient was a series of deep groans. not
! from pain, but from the effects of the
anesthetic.
1t is Impossible to present in words
the picture of the operating room and
the quick work of the surgeons, the
assistance of the nurses, the equip