On harelip / by Francis Mason.

  • Mason, Francis, 1837-1886.
Date:
[1875]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On harelip / by Francis Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/34 (page 19)
    rather coarse, and nearly a yard in length, is then to be applied in the figure of 8 fashion, commencing at the nasal extremity, and the edges of the wound brought accurately together. Some surgeons prefer a separate thread for each pin, and put one point of interrupted suture through the mucous membrane of the lower part of the fissure just inside the mouth.1 Others put interrupted sutures between the pins. Whatever plan be adopted, the threads are to be tied and their ends removed, after which the projecting portions of the needles are to be clipped, and if necessary a small piece of lint or plaster may be placed under their ends in order to protect the subjacent skin. Collodion may or may not be employed to cover the needles and thread. Several years ago I adopted a very simple and most efficacious plan of restraining the move- ments of the lip, by coating each cheek with a thickness of collodion about the size of a five-shilling piece, or larger. Broca refers to a somewhat similar method in ‘ Gaz. des Hopitaux/ June 8, 1872. In cases of double harelip the proceeding is much the same. If the intermaxillary bones so project as to prevent the edges of the wound from coming nicely in contact, they may be removed or dealt with in one of the ways that will be referred to pre- sently. In most cases it is necessary to pare the central portion, so as to make a continuous raw surface of a V shape (fig. 16). Fig. 16. As a rule, both sides of the fissure may be closed at the same time. The lateral portions of the fissures are to be made raw in the same way and in the same order as already referred to in describing the operation for single harelip. The harelip pins, which in double harelip are almost essential, are introduced as before from below upwards, the surgeon taking care to include the central portion by transfixing it with one or more of the needles. Or the pos- 1 ‘ Ericlisen’s Science and Art of Surgery,’ p. 350.