On the treatment of cicatricial contraction of the fingers by transplantation of completely separated skin flaps / by Robert Kennedy, M.A., D.Sc., M.D., Dispensary Surgeon to the Western Infirmary, Glasgow.

  • Kennedy, Robert, -1924.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of cicatricial contraction of the fingers by transplantation of completely separated skin flaps / by Robert Kennedy, M.A., D.Sc., M.D., Dispensary Surgeon to the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    hair. In view of this Braun1 has recently studied the micro- scopic appearances of several of Krause’s cases of grafting by this method. Small portions of the grafted skin at various stages were excised for examination, and he found that the structures of the transplanted cutis were almost in toto retained. The elastic and fibrillar tissue, papillae, hair follicles, glands, and muscle cells were all found to be retained at periods ranging from four days to three and a quarter years from the date of the operation. These also could not have been replaced from below, as the graft was found demarcated from the underlying parts by a true cicatricial tissue. This view is supported by Henle,2 who describes the process of healing from experimental grafting in rabbits as follows: The early nutrition of the transplanted tissue is maintained entirely by transudation, but by the fourth day, as shown by injected preparations, the vessels of the graft are already included in the circulation. This is effected by outgrowth of capillary vessels from those of the tissue below the graft, which make connections with those of the graft. After this stage the healing process is simply that of healing per prirnam. The view thus expressed by Braun and by Henle is in accord- ance with clinical experience, and explains the superiority of grafts including the cutis vera over those which consist merely of epidermis. In conclusion, I have to express my thanks to Dr. Patterson for allowing me to perform the operations in Cases 2 and 3 in his wards in the Western Infirmary. 1 Braun, “ Histologische Untersuchungcn liber die Anlieilung Krause’scher Hautlappen,” Langenbeck’s Archiv, 1899, vol. lix., p. 340. 2 Henle, “Verhandlungen der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Chirurgie: XXVIII. lvongress,” Beilage zum Centralblatt fur Chirurgie, 1899, No. 27, p. 30.