The surgical use of celluloid thread / by W.W. Keen and Randle C. Rosenberger.

  • William Williams Keen
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The surgical use of celluloid thread / by W.W. Keen and Randle C. Rosenberger. 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.

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    1 have used it with very great satisfaction thus far, though the use has been too recent to give a final opinion on its merits, especially as to the question of its absorbability. Dr. Rosenberger is now at work on some experiments as to this point, and we will be able to report the results before long. Inasmuch as it has been used in a large number of operations by Prof. Pagenstecher (Philadelphia Medical Journal, December 2,1899), I have no doubt that it will prove to be a most useful material, both for suture and ligature. Compared with catgut and silk, it is much cheaper, and if it proves on extended use to be as valuable, it will go far to solve the ques- tion of the best material for sutures and ligatures. Report by Randle C. Rosenberger, M.D. [From the Laboratories of the Jefferson Medical College Hospital.] The material to be examined consists of a celluloid thread, grayish-brown in color, more or less smooth, and showing upon microscopic examination to consist of interwoven fibrils with smooth edges. Measured in the dry condition it takes size 29 by the B. and S. gauge (0.011257 inch). Experiment I. To determine tensile strength : Pieces of raw thread 1 meter in length supported a weight of 1630 gms. The experiment was performed as follows : 1. The thread was wrapped around a gas fixture and around the handle of a bucket below. Water was poured into the bucket until the thread broke, when the bucket and contained water were weighed. The thread broke in nearly every instance about 8 inches from tlie handle. 2. The thread was tied to t'm fixture ab we and to the bucket below. When tied the thread broke at the knot or in its immediate vicinity. Experiment II. To determine absorption of fluid: Hygrometry: Two pieces of the thread were taken, each weighing 155 mg. One piece was placed in the incubator, the other in water. The thread was dried to a constant weight in 72 hours at which time it weighed 152 mg.; loss 2 °/o. Before weighing the piece which was soaked in water it was thoroughly mopped with filter paper to rid it of excess