Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-09

The surgeon spins the brace round and
round and grinds off the head of the femur
bone as an auto mechanic might grind the
valves-on a car, or telescope maker might
grind a lens of glass.
When the femur has thus been cleaned
and cut away to a depth of a sixteenth of
an inch the surgeon takes from the hands
of his assistant a series of transparent plastic
caps made of lucite. These caps come in
graduated sizes-as would shoes, hats or
stockings to fit the various sizes of indi-
vdual femurs
Each lucite cap is a hemisphere with
diameters ranging from one and half inches
to two inches. The caps are tried for best
fit. the proper one quickly selected and placed
over the reamed-of head of the femuI bone.
The lucite cap in place is shown in the third
diagram.
Finally the surgeon springs the femur,
now covered with the smooth, hard but resii-
ent surface of lucite, back into the hip socket
and starts putting the muscles and ligaments
back into their proper place
Innumerable stitches are required for this
task because the hip joint is embedded in
mass of muscle.
The completed operation is shown in dia-
gram four Just before the skin is sewed to-
gether over the exposed muscles. The outline
of the embedded lueite plastic cap on the
femur is shown by the dotted line in the Joint
Several hours are required for the whole
operation
After the anesthetic wears off the patient
gets the surprise of his life He still has APP
probable pain, it is true. for one cannot dis
locate a hip lolnt-even surgcally without
considerable pain
But it is a different kind of pain. Instead
of excruciating torture when he tries to move
even a single toe the patient finds that he can
move his entire leg the next day without pain
from the movement. The joint is sore, and so
are the stitched up muscles. but the pain from
arthntis is gone.
One of the most amazing scenes of all in
DR. Harmon's medical movie in which he
shows the entire operation to other physi-
clans is TO see the patient "a hours after the
operation. The arthritis victim lies in a hos
pital bed with his leg in frame from his
foot 10 his hip
From the foot-cnd of the frame goes a
cord to an overhead pulley. The end of this
cord Is held by the patient BY pulling on the
cord the patient can swing his leg upward as
he would in walking He pulls the cord up
swings the leg . and there is never vestige
of pain on the patients face. One could hear
obs and abs from even hardboiled, matter
of-fact doctors as they this exhibition of
pain-kllinG by surgery.
It takes some time for the stitched muscles
and the lgaments to heal in the hip joint. but
in SIX weeks the patient can be seen walking
on crutches and swinging his afflicted leg in
an ordinary manner
From then on recovery is quite normal.
Patients return to their former occupations
free from the torture of Gripping arthrits in
the hip joint.
II would be wonderful to be able to say
that what br. Harmon can do for the hip
joint could be duplicated for the other joints
of the body But unfortunately it is mposs-
knowledge
The reason is that the hip Joint Is unique
II Is the only one m the body working In all
planes Of motion, does universal JOINT
Al the other joints Of the body are COM
blnations Of hinge action and balland socket