Evening star., 1934-06-13
SURGEON PREDICTS
SEWING UP HEARTS,
New Type of Operation, Now
in Experimental Stage,
Is Described.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated fresS.
CLEVELAND, June 13.-A new type
of heart surgery, promising one ave-
nue. Of escape from the present tre-
mendous heart death rate in the
United States, was proposed to the
American Medical Association today
by Claude s. Beck, Cleveland surgeon.
He pictures surgeons in the near
The hearts will be patched literally,
he predicted, with gratis Of tissue
taken from other parts Of the body.
In Experimental Stage.
F1attened hearts will be straight
ened Leaking heart valves will be
closed Torn hearts will be sewn up.
The surgery which will do this with
comparative safety, without stopping
the heart. is already in the expert
mental stage.
In making these predictions DR..
Beck enumerated heart injuries which
he said the medical profession has
scarcely begun to recognize.
These heart troubles, he said, come
from collisions, falls or blows. Little
attention has been paid in the past
to such accidents as the sources of
heart trouble. The emphasis has been
confined largely to hearts penetrated
by sharp instruments or by bullets.
Holds Bruises Possible.
Because the heart is apparently so
well protected by the ribs and chest
bone, he said. few persons think it
may be bruised. Yet he said there
"can be little doubt that the heart is
the recipient of many injuries"
Some of these hurts, he argued,
have produced symptoms which were
mistakingly attributed to disease, in
stead Of bruise. He told of golfer
who was struck over the heart re-
Gently by q golf ball. Three days
later this man developed angina
pectoris.
Foremost medical men, DR.. Beck
said, held that this angina had no
relation to the golf ball. With this
opinion he disagreed emphatically
Another case was a man kicked in the
chest by colt when 4 years old. All
his life this man had suffered from
bad heart. Lately X-rays and other
up-to-date diagnosis showed a fat
tened heart, due to the kick.
Surgery in childhood, DR.. Beck said.
would have Strengthened that heart,
and probably made 1t sound again.
Experiments Cited.
Experiments on animals were cited
to show that mechanical deformities
may develop in bruised hearts. Opera
tions to set them right, just as like
deformities are repaired in other parts
of the body, the surgeon said are a
necessary development Of the future. y
The technique of sewing a ruptured
heart. of patching a rupture and of
reinforcing heart walls. he explained
already is being developed expert
mentally. Both diagnostic and tech
nical problems still remain to be over
come
Hypodermics made of flesh which
relieve some kinds of limping. leg
cramps and leg weakness were de-
scribed by Nelson w. Barker, M. D.;
George E. Brown, NJ D.. and Grace M
Roth, M. D., of Rochester. MINI.
Extracts From Pancreas.
These hypodermics were extracts
from the pancreas and from muscle
The disease they relieve is ''intermit-
tent claudication," crippling condi-
| ton caused by Inflammation of the in
ner lining of leg arteries.
The pancreas injections nearly
| doubled the walking ability Of % PEI
cent of the persons upon whom 1t was
| taetad The henef7ts hecan In half an
hour and lasted about a week.
The muscle extracts worked vel
with some patients, but not in general
as well as the pancreas tissues. The
physicians said it is not known what
substance in these tissue extracts gives
the relief. 1t is believed the hypo-
dermics detour into the leg muscles
something they need whose supply
is curtailed by the diseased blood YES
sells.