Greenglow

A new fluorescent test which tells surgeons whether or not to amputate was described last week at New York Medical College by Drs. Kurt Lange & Linn John Boyd.

When the doctors have a patient with a gangrenous foot or strangulated hernia (protruding loop of gut), they wheel him into an operating room, inject fluorescein, a reddish dye, into the vein of his arm. Then they darken the room, shine an ultraviolet lamp on the gangrenous area. The dye should make a circuit of the patient's blood stream in 20 seconds. If the gut or foot is still alive and receiving fresh blood, it will glow yellow green. Then it is safe to tuck the gut back in place, or stimulate circulation in the leg. But if the blood supply is choked, the limb or hernia remains dark, must be amputated at once. This test, the doctors said, should avoid unnecessary surgery, thus reduce the 50% mortality rate for strangulated hernia resections.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.