Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-09-29
BY ALTON /. BLAKEsLEE

Associated Press Science Reporter
NEW YORK, sept. 20. Sick
and hungry human hearts are
being transformed to health by
. new era Of bold. brilliant sur
gerry.
Surgeons, dreaming Of things
once considered impossible. went
pioneering so that today:
Several different operations
can bring renewed life and
strength to hearts damaged by
attacks such as President Eiseil-
hover suffered.
Heart-lung machines can put
human hearts and lungs on COM
plete vacations. Empty Of blood.
the heart then can be opened 30
surgeons can see just where q
defect Is, and repair II.
The blood circulation OF 8 sick
child and healthy adult can be
linked together. The adults
heart and lungs do the work Of
the child,s, while the child's heart
Is opened and exposed for repair.
Arteries Transplanted
Spare arteries taken from the
dead are banked. then used to
replace damaged or missing Sec
tions Of living persons arteries.
Even anirnal arteries have been
transplanted into humans.
Some persons have plastic
valves substituting fol. their own
damaged heart valves. And new
techniq,ies permit amazing re-
pair Of. hearts defective or
mixed up since birth.
Most of these surgical adj
vances have blossomed within
the last 10 years, many are still
very new.
There are two main tech
niques for helping some victims
Of bad heart attacks. the coro-
nary thrombosis similar to
President Eisenhowef's. Then q
clot blocks one or more Of the
branches OF arteries that bring
siourishment to the heart
muscle. Recovery depends upon
expansion and extension Of other
arteries. or growth Of new
arteries, to nourish the area de-
prived of blood supply.
Fad attacks leave many per.
sons weak. short Of breath, sub
ject to pain on .exertion, often
true heart cripples.
Talcum Technique
One remedy Is to irritate the
heart, stimulating the heart
muscle to create q new blood
supply. Sterile talcum powder
or asbestos powder is put inside
the sac surrounding the heart.
The talcum technique was de-
vised by Dr. Samuel Thompson,
New York. and the asbestos
treatment by DR.. Claude s. Beck.
Cleveland.
Secondly. the heart hungry
for blood, can. in effect. be given
q new artery. DR.. Beck takes q
piece of vein from the arm. then
hooks 1t on the heart so some
blood being pumped from the
heart Is fed into the heart
muscle.
DR.. Arthur Vineberg Of Nom
treal. Canada. ships an artery
that runs down through the
chest. swings one end OF it over
and buries It In q tunnel In the
heart muscle. It becomes third
artery feeding the powerhouse
Of life. In time. he reports. an
sectional network Of little blood
vessels appears. distributing the
new supply of blood.
Dozens of persons have bene-
fitted from one or another Of
these operations.
Even more dramatic perhaps
are heart-lung machines. steadi-
" pulsing blood through the
human body, putting oxygen into
the blood, while the human
pump rests-still pulsing but
"dry" of blood.
For 20 to 10 minutes. heart
lung machines have worked on
while surgeons plugged holes in
the walls separating chambers
Of the heart. or fixed malformed
or diseased valves.
Four In Actual Use
Four artificial heart-lung ma
chimes are In actual use. the
American Heart Association re-
ports. and clinical application Is
Just beginning.
Busiest Of them is q new one
Of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester.
Mimi, used on more than two
dozen patients this year by q
team headed by DR.. John w.
Kirklin. The Mayo heart Is q
modified version of the heart
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