Wight, of Brooklyn, has suggested that advantage be taken of the properties of high-frequency discharges from a suitable apparatus to secure their hemostatic and coagulant effect. He has shown that such electrical discharge will clot blood and coagulate albumin, this effect being partly due to the formation of nitric acid from the air. In this way it is theoretically possible to so seal the surfaces as to fix grafts firmly in place. The apparatus calls for a pointed electrode, passed at a distance of about 1 Cm. above the entire surface, until the clot is firm and reasonably dry, all serum that is expressed in the process being removed with sponges. Where the apparatus can be employed this affords an effective way of fixing the grafts and preventing their displacement.
Surface epithelium from an animal source may be used when necessary—as from a young pig after it has left the packing-house, a young calf, or some smaller animal. All that is required is epithelium. That from a negro will reproduce only pigmented cells like the original. At the time when amputating a limb about which there is still left healthy unbroken skin, shavings may be removed from it and preserved for a week or two between dry sterilized towels or in a weak antiseptic solution; these may then be utilized for skin grafting during the ensuing few days.
Fig. 30
Figure-of-8 bandage of leg.
Fig. 31
Velpeau’s bandage.
Fig. 32
