Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [462]
supplemented excision of spina bifida by the transplantation of a strip of periosteum from a rabbit. Poncet hastened a cure in a case of necrosis with partial destruction of the periosteum by inserting grafts taken from the bones of a dead infant and from a kid. Ricketts speaks of bone-grafting and the use of ivory, and remarks that Poncet of Lyons restored a tibia in nine months by grafting to the superior articular surface. Recently amalgam fillings have been used in bone-cavities to supplant grafting.
In destructive injuries of the skin, various materials were formerly used in grafting, none of which, however, have produced the same good effect as the use of skin by the Thiersch Method, which will be described later
Rodgers, U.S.N., reports the case of a white man of thirty-eight who suffered from gangrene of the skin of the buttocks caused by sitting in a pan of caustic potash. When seen the man was intoxicated, and there was a gangrenous patch four by six inches on his buttocks. Rodgers used grafts from the under wing of a young fowl, as suggested by Redard, with good result. Vanmeter of Colorado describes a boy of fourteen with a severe extensive burn; a portion beneath the chin and lower jaw, and the right arm from the elbow to the fingers, formed a granulating surface which would not heal, and grafting was resorted to. The neck-grafts were supplied by the skin of the father and brother, but the arm-grafts were taken from two young puppies of the Mexican hairless breed, whose soft, white, hairless skin seemed to offer itself for the purpose with good prospect of a successful result. The outcome was all that could be desired. The puppy-grafts took faster and proved themselves to be superior to the skin-grafts. There is a case reported in which the skin of a greyhound seven days old, taken from the abdominal wall and even from the tail, was used with most satisfactory results in grafting an extensive ulcer following a burn on the left leg of a boy of ten. Masterman has grafted with the inner membrane of a hen's egg, and a Mexican surgeon, Altramirano, used the gills of a cock.
Fowler of Brooklyn has grafted with the skin from the back and abdomen of a large frog. The patient was a colored boy of sixteen, who was extensively burned by a kerosene lamp. The burns were on the legs, thighs, buttocks, and right ankle, and the estimated area of burnt surface was 247.95 square inches. The frog skin was transferred to the left buttocks, and on the right buttocks eight long strips of white skin were transferred after the manner of Thiersch. A strip of human skin was placed in one section over the frog skin, but became necrotic in four days, not being attached to the granulating surface. The man was discharged cured in six months. The frog skin was soft, pliable, and of a reddish hue, while the human white skin was firm and rapidly becoming pigmented. Leale cites the successful use of common warts in a case of grafting on a man of twenty who was burned on the foot by a stream of molten metal. Leale remarks that as common warts of the skin are collections of vascular papillae, admitting of separation without injury to their exceptionally thick layer of epidermis, they are probably better for the purposes of skin-grafting than ordinary skin of less vitality or vascularity. Ricketts has succeeded in grafting the skin of a frog to that of a tortoise, and also grafting frog skin to human skin. Ricketts remarks that the prepuce of a boy is remarkably good material for grafting. Sponge-grafts are often used to hasten cicatrization of integumental wounds. There is recorded an instance in which the breast of a crow and the back of a rat were grafted together and grew fast. The crow dragged the rat along, and the two did not seem to care to part company.
Relative to skin-grafting proper, Bartens succeeded in grafting the skin of a dead man of seventy on a boy of fourteen. Symonds reports cases of skin-grafting of large flaps from amputated limbs, and says this method is particularly available in large hospitals where they have
In destructive injuries of the skin, various materials were formerly used in grafting, none of which, however, have produced the same good effect as the use of skin by the Thiersch Method, which will be described later
Rodgers, U.S.N., reports the case of a white man of thirty-eight who suffered from gangrene of the skin of the buttocks caused by sitting in a pan of caustic potash. When seen the man was intoxicated, and there was a gangrenous patch four by six inches on his buttocks. Rodgers used grafts from the under wing of a young fowl, as suggested by Redard, with good result. Vanmeter of Colorado describes a boy of fourteen with a severe extensive burn; a portion beneath the chin and lower jaw, and the right arm from the elbow to the fingers, formed a granulating surface which would not heal, and grafting was resorted to. The neck-grafts were supplied by the skin of the father and brother, but the arm-grafts were taken from two young puppies of the Mexican hairless breed, whose soft, white, hairless skin seemed to offer itself for the purpose with good prospect of a successful result. The outcome was all that could be desired. The puppy-grafts took faster and proved themselves to be superior to the skin-grafts. There is a case reported in which the skin of a greyhound seven days old, taken from the abdominal wall and even from the tail, was used with most satisfactory results in grafting an extensive ulcer following a burn on the left leg of a boy of ten. Masterman has grafted with the inner membrane of a hen's egg, and a Mexican surgeon, Altramirano, used the gills of a cock.
Fowler of Brooklyn has grafted with the skin from the back and abdomen of a large frog. The patient was a colored boy of sixteen, who was extensively burned by a kerosene lamp. The burns were on the legs, thighs, buttocks, and right ankle, and the estimated area of burnt surface was 247.95 square inches. The frog skin was transferred to the left buttocks, and on the right buttocks eight long strips of white skin were transferred after the manner of Thiersch. A strip of human skin was placed in one section over the frog skin, but became necrotic in four days, not being attached to the granulating surface. The man was discharged cured in six months. The frog skin was soft, pliable, and of a reddish hue, while the human white skin was firm and rapidly becoming pigmented. Leale cites the successful use of common warts in a case of grafting on a man of twenty who was burned on the foot by a stream of molten metal. Leale remarks that as common warts of the skin are collections of vascular papillae, admitting of separation without injury to their exceptionally thick layer of epidermis, they are probably better for the purposes of skin-grafting than ordinary skin of less vitality or vascularity. Ricketts has succeeded in grafting the skin of a frog to that of a tortoise, and also grafting frog skin to human skin. Ricketts remarks that the prepuce of a boy is remarkably good material for grafting. Sponge-grafts are often used to hasten cicatrization of integumental wounds. There is recorded an instance in which the breast of a crow and the back of a rat were grafted together and grew fast. The crow dragged the rat along, and the two did not seem to care to part company.
Relative to skin-grafting proper, Bartens succeeded in grafting the skin of a dead man of seventy on a boy of fourteen. Symonds reports cases of skin-grafting of large flaps from amputated limbs, and says this method is particularly available in large hospitals where they have