Capsules

P:Surgeons at Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital gave a glowing progress report on the first human being to receive a successfully transplanted kidney: Richard Herrick, 24, who got one from his identical twin Ronald (TIME, Jan. 3 and Feb. 7), has gained 25 Ibs., his blood pressure is down, his enlarged heart is back to normal size, and he is carrying on "unlimited activity." Ronald is doing fine, too.

P:Within a year, surgeons may be able to take a big step forward in repairing coronary arteries in victims who have already suffered an occlusion, and so guard them against further attacks. The University of Minnesota's Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, one of last week's Lasker Award winners (see above), told the American College of Surgeons that he had used the technique successfully on dogs, was about ready to try it on human patients. A section of coronary artery near the chest wall (in which most occlusions occur) is either opened, scraped clean and sewed up again, or is removed and replaced with a healthy length of artery. Operation time, in a "dry field" (using a heart-lung machine): half an hour.

P:Not content with elaborate heart-lung machines to permit operations inside a patient's heart, or marrow-chilling techniques to drop his temperature, Dr. Frank Gollan of Nashville VA Hospital combined the two. He has devised a cheap ($250) pump-oxygenator with a refrigerated coil like those used in bars to cool beer. Not yet ready for use on human beings, the machine has dropped a dog's temperature to 55DEG F., and the animal has made a good recovery after operation.

P:To free polio victims from dependence on the confining iron lung, the University of Minnesota's Dr. Frederick H. Van Bergen offers a respirator which breathes for the patient through a tube slipped into an incision in his windpipe. The size of a TV set, the gadget is easily wheeled around, plugs into ordinary house current, or if the power fails, can be cranked by hand--some patients can do it themselves.

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