The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1917-07-28
Remaking Of the Eye Region
One of the Wonders
Performed.
OPERATE WHILE GUNS ROAR
Handle Patients With Goodness and
Rapidly Under Constant Menace
OF Death-Wounded Loud In
Praises Of Surgeons.
BY c. r. BERTELIl.

Parls.-The remaking Of the eye
region through the transportation OF
part Of the mucous membrane and the
grating Of eyelids and lashes are
among the marvels Of plastic surgery
accomplished In France during the
war by DR.. Louis BOrsch, the famous
American oculist, who, since August,
1914, has been chief ophthalmic sur
geon at. the huge Grand Palais Mill
tary hospital In Paris.
Doctor Borsch has Just returned
from trip to the trenches and field
hospitals, which he made at the re-
quest of the department Of health for
the purpose of advising as to the pos
sibllity Of improving existing methods
Of treating wounds Of the eye and
saving the vision Of the thousands Of
soldiers who In this latter phase Of
the war are suffering from such injur-
les.
Three years Of constant daily ex-
perience in the treatment Of eye
wounds Mt the Grand Palals," said
Doctor Borsch on his return, has en-
ibled me to witness very consider
able improvement In the methods en-
ployed, and very gratifying results are
now being obtained. II we could have
taken up our task In 1914 with the
benefit Of the experience we have
since acquired, our results would GER
.ainly have been more than 100 per
cent better.
Under Menace Of Death.
"The one great lesson we have
earned is that our chances of oper-
ltlng successfully in cases Of eye
wounds are enormously increased
when patients are brought to us i'm
nedlately after they have received
heir wounds. The same remark, Of
course, applies to all wounds.
SLOW well the heads of the French
medical service realize this will be
understood when say that during
ny Champagne trip found many
Eases In which the wounded had been
brought from the trenches to the
aeld hospitals, washed and operated
1pon. with all dressings completed,
within four hours Of their receiving
their injuries. The surgeons and
curses work under the constant men
ace Of death. myself saw them
working In frst-aid dugouts and In
The hospitals just behind the lines
amidst never-ending showers of big
shells, yet they handle their patients
with a GOODNESS, rapidity and skill
which cannot be surpassed In the
operating theater of Paris hospital.
"The wounded IRE unanimous In
their praise of the treatment they
receive. and so thorough and efficient
Is 1t that do not think 1t possible
to improve upon the work Of the
aeld hospitals that we inspected. We
saw many wounded with severe frac-
lures of the thighs and legs who
we're walking about the wards in a
special apparatus four days after
their being wounded; these men as
,ured me they had never suffered a
moments pain.
1--WE also saw many German wound
ed, and there was not one Of them who
lid not seem pleased to be a prisoner
in French hands. They are treated
with precisely the same care and de-
votlon as the French wounded, whose
wards they share, and no distinction
whatever Is made.
Surgeons Work Wonders.
Dangerous eye wounds, that In
their treatment call for nerves of
steel il the surgeon and a hand that
never deviates hairs breadth, are
tended amid the most hellish uproar
imaginable; the quick and efficient use
of the eye magnet, for instance, for
! drawing out shell splinters from the
| region Of the eye socket has saved
sight In thousands of cases.
UNFORTUNATELY beneath the cease.
less cataract Of exploding shells the
face wounds In many cases are Sc
bad that no ophthalmic skill could
possibly save the sight. But here
plastic surgery, one Of the wonders
OF the war, comes In to make the
victims face again presentable. Plas
tic work goes further than the re-
making Of shattered jaws and noses
the upper part Of the face, including
the eye region, can be patched up SC
as to make the poor wounded pre-
sentable and not objects Of horror
to their fellow men,"
The records Of the Grand Palais
hospital show that Doctor Borsch, who
was one of the first American sur
geons to graft the cornea, has sue
cessfully transplanted skin, bone, car
tilage and mucous membrane to th'
orbit. In several cases he has pro
yided soldiers with new eyelids b,
taking cartilage from the ribs, graft
Ing II over the socket and afterwardi
making an incision In the new skin
To the upper and lower edges Of thu
slit thus made he has grated flesh
bearing hairs, which Is taken from
the eyebrows, In this manner furnish
ing new lashes, and has afterward
patched up the eye socket BY trans
plantations from the mucuous mem
brsne taken from the mouth.