The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-14
SHINBONE OF
 MAN NEW LEG
 FOR A WOMAN

New York, July 14-By grating the shinbone of a man on to woman suffering from necrosis, thus practi- caliy giving her whole neW lower leg, pr. Henry F. Frauenthal> yester- day performed an operation unique in surgery-one in which the daring was Justified by the result, since 1t saved the limb. The story is told in the New York World:
 Up to now operations of this sort have been confined to experimental work done on dogs by Dr. Alexis Car rel at the Rockefeller Institute. With Dr. Frauenthal it was a case of ann putating the diseased leg above the knee or putting in a new tibia. It was done at the Hospital for Defor- mites and Joint Diseases at One Hun dred and Twenty-fourth street and Madison avenue where the patient had been under preparatory treatment for two months. The first essential was to get a good healthy bone to take the place of the one eaten by disease After a time one of the hospitals which handle emergency cases reported that man had been killed in an accident. As the body was unclaimed and would have gone either to Potter's Field or the dissecting table of some medical college, requisition was made for one of the legs, from which the tibia was taken. It was kept in an icebox, lrn- mersed in a strong salt solution, un- til the surgeon was ready to use It.
 In Hospital Three Months. The patient is Katherine Neary thirty-five years old, who lives with her sister in Brooklyn, when she is not employed as a domestic She was admitted to the Hospital for Deform- ities, where she still is, on April IS Her left leg from the knee down was swollen to twice it's normal size.
 Several of the foremost surgeons of the city had advised immediate am putation. She had been shifted from four institutions, which found 1t a hardship on the other inmates to keep her. The head of one of the hos- pitals told pr. Frauenthal, who has wide reputation in diseases of the bones and joints, and he had the case transferred to the Hospital for De formities of which he is physician and surgeon-in- chief
 It was necessary to isolate the pa- tient She was getting constitutional treatment according to Ehrlich for- mula but the response was slow. AS she is dependent upon herself for her Livelihood she begged that her leg be not taken off So the doctor de- cided upon the grating.
 After she had gone under the ether, the surgeon cut away all the flesh around the bone for space of about ten inches. This left exposed the t1b1a and it's companion bone, the hbula, around which some flesh was left as the back part of the leg was healthier than the rest.
 old Bone Cut Out.
 The periosteum, which is the mem brane protecting the bone, was care fully cut away and then eight inches of the bone was chiselled out. It was impossible, because of it's condition, to take it out as a whole. The top and bottom of the tibia, which were in fair condition, were sawed through just below the top and just above the bottom, so as to give anchorage to the new bone.
 This was cut fraction of an inch longer than the space it was to fill and then wedged into position, held solid1y by the pressure on either end. both of which had been roughened so as to get the increased holding strength. Before it worked into place it was necessary to hammer it heav- fly.
 Then the edges of the flesh were drawn together by stitches. which still left gap of easily an inch and a half Before this the wound was covered with rubber tissue under
 which the flesh will grow. Also the periosteum was carefully sewn to- l gether, to give the new bone all pos sible support and protection while it l is growing to the remnants of the | old.
 When the flesh has filled in the opening through which the tibia shows skin will be grafted from the hips and breast and back of the patient in quantity sufficent to cover the leg, l which is now raw from the ankle al- | most to the knee.