Evening star., 1953-10-06
Electric Shock Use
To Stop Heart Beats
For Surgery Detailed
by ,hs Asseeiatsd Press

St1ocRS TO make hearts quit beat
ing for safer and new heart OPP
erations were reported today to
the American College Of Sur
geons.
Dogs hearts have been stopped
this way for up to 70 minutes,
no longer pulsing or pumping
in bouncy fashion. The hearts
merely quiver slightly, staying
quiet for delicate surgery. A
heart-lung machine, meanwhile.
keeps the dogs alive.
When the surgery is done. a
stronger electric shock starts the
heart beating normally again.
Achievement Described.
This success was described by
DR.. James A. Helmsworth of the
University of Cincinnati College
of Medicine. The research team
includes DR.. Leland c. Clark, Jr,
Fels Institute for Research on
Human Development, Antioch
College, Yellow Springs, Ohio,
who developed a mechanical
heart-lung machine. and Doctors
Samuel Kaplan, Roger T. Sher-
man, and Harold Liddle of the
Children's Hospital research
foundation, Cincinnati.
This method would permit new
kinds of surgery on children's
hearts. especially when there is
a defect in the wall separating
the two lower, chambers or
ventricles of the heart.
A quick series of shocks of 10
to 80 volts haltS the dogs heart
beat. Shocks of 10 to 80 volts
restore it.
The research was supported
by the American Heart ASsocia-
ton, Playtex Park Research In
stitute, Cincinnati Children's
Heart Association and Lucy Raw
son Scientific Fund.
Four Get New Arteries.
In another report to the Col
lege of Surgeons, it was disclosed
that four men are living with
new arteries taken from calves
and a pig.
The animal arteries are re-
placing their own damaged
arteries in the chest, arm and leg.
This marks the f1rst-time re-
peal of a law of nature which
has been blocking the goal of
giving humans new hearts, lungs
or kidneys for their own tired,
sick or damaged organs.
This law says no human will |
tolerate mature organs or It's
sues taken from another human |
or animal. Your body reacts to |
destroy the borrowed spare part |
The law was evaded by new
method of treating the animal
arteries developed by DR.. Charles
Hufnagel, Pierre j. Rabil and
Lois Reed of Georgetown Uni
versity Medical Center, Wash |
ington, D. c. DR.. Hufnagel re-
ported it to the College of Sur
geonS.
Quick Frozen and Dried.
The arteries are quick-frozen
and dried under a vacuum. Then |
they are sterilized by gas, eth
ylene oxide, used to Sterilize |
spices and drugs. The dried ar
teries are kept in sealed con-
tainers in a vacuum, at room
temperature, ready for use after
being soaked in water.
The freezing and gas treat
ment may chemically change
the arteries so they will be toll
Grated in the body of human or
another animal, DR.. Hufnagel
said. This is the repeal of the
law.
Two men in their COS received
segmentS of calf arteries to re-
place arteries near their hearts
which had hardened and mar
roWed dangerously. DR.. HUI
nagel used sections of the big
artery, the aorta, coming from
the animals hearts for this pur-
pose.
Operations Held Success.
Two men in their 30s got |
lengths of animal limb arteries |
to replace sections of their arm
or leg arteries crushed in acci-
dents. These borrowed animal
arteries we're up to- six inches
long.
The operations were done six
to nine months ago and are
judged successful. The animal
arteries are not alive. The hu-
man body uses them as seal
fold, replacing most of the ar
terry tissue with new tissue of
it's own. But the all-important
elastic tissue of the animal ar
terry is kept intact. DR.. Hufna-
gel said. The human body can't
grow new elastic tissue, which
keeps an artery from swelling or
bursting under pressure of the
blood.
Animal arteries were used be-
cause pieces of human arteries
preserved in the same way-were
not available in the right sizes
and shapes. Spare human ar
teries may be superior to animal |
ones. DR.. Hufnagel said, but this
success opens a new source of |