Those Magical Medical Glues!
Amazing new adhesives have been developed which promise great health benefits in the
mending of broken bones, filling of teeth cavities, and in delicate heart surgery
By FRED WARSHOFSKY
STICKY substances that look much
like ordinary household glues may
cause a revolution in medicine.
Known generally as "medical glues," they are
made from a wide variety of plastic and animal
bases. Some are still in the experimental stage;
others have proved themselves, and medical re
searchers are hoping that these glues will soon
be used widely for such diverse tasks as repair
ing broken bones, restoring hearing to deaf ears,
and opening new techniques of heart surgery.
Today the most widely used of the new ad
hesives is a glue called Ostamer, which can bind
broken bones. Like other polyurethane foaming
plastics, Ostamer is still considered experi
mental, but it has been successfully used on more
than 250 patients.
The technique is simple. An incision brings the
broken bone into view. The glue is mixed at the
operating table and poured directly into the
break. The two pieces of bone are pressed to
gether and the incision is closed. So fast-drying
and strong is the bond that the bone can bear the
patient's full weight in just a few days. No cast
is needed; the bone cells continue the process of
healing by simply growing together through and
around the glue.
Dr. Michael Mandarino, of Philadelphia, one
of the developers of Ostamer, used it to treat a
29-year-old man with an acute leg fracture. Or
dinary treatment of such a major break would
have kept the man on his back for weeks and in a
cast for several months with no guarantee that
he would walk normally again. Dr. Mandarino
had the patient on his feet in three days. By the
end of the third week, the man was back on his
job as a moving-van driver.
In Sydney, Australia, Dr. Bernard Block has
had highly successful results with a bone glue
made from a synthetic resin-adhesive material.
He has found that full arm use is restored in
three days, and broken legs bear full weight
without crutches in four days.
Still another use for the bone glue has been
uncovered by an ear specialist, Dr. Joseph Sat
aloff of Philadelphia. He treated a 14-year-old
boy whose hearing had been impaired for nine
years as a result of a complication that arose
from a mastoid operation. As sometimes happens,
the operation left a gap in the bony canal along
which sound travels through the middle ear. By
using a single drop of bone glue, Dr. Sataloff was
able to bridge the gap and restore almost perfect
hearing to the youth.
ALTHOUGH the use of glues in heart surgery
. and dentistry still is in the experimental
stage, great hope is held out for them. In Oak
land, Calif., Dr. Thomas J. Canty and a team of
U.S. Navy researchers have developed a "tooth
glue." Thus far the glue has been used solely on
dogs, but if it can be used successfully on hu
mans, it may prove to be the greatest boon to
dental surgery since anesthesia. "Dental plates,
bridgework, and even filling of cavities will be
completely revolutionized by the use of medical
glues," declares Dr. Canty.
Unlike most of the newly developed medical
glues, the "tooth glue" has an animal base. It is
made from the materials that comprise bone:
calcium, phosphorous, and glycogen. The glue
serves to hold the tooth firmly in place until
- natural bone grows around it to clutch it securely
and permanently. In the Oakland laboratory, one
dog has been using a glued-in tooth for two years.
The glue set so quickly that the dog ate its dinner
a few hours after the tooth was inserted.
IN AN EAST COAST laboratory, Dr. B. D. Halpern
has been working on a medical glue with the
tongue-twisting name of methyl alpha-cyanoacry-Iate.
Dajac's Adhere, as it is more familiarly
known, is being used experimentally in major
surgery to bind severed arteries.
"One of the glue's chief advantages may be in
the field of heart surgery," says Dr. Arnold Selig
man of Baltimore. He and others have been ex
perimenting with it as an adjunct to sutures in
delicate heart operations. "The glue will simplify
techniques that until recently have been per
formed by only a very few of the most skilled
surgeons," Dr. Seligman said.
One such operation is the reaming out of .
blocked coronary veins. These blood vessels of the
heart are too small to hold any but the most
delicate sutures, and it requires an infinitely long
time to complete the operation. But with the ar
terial glue, the technique is greatly simplified and
its quick-setting properties allow the operation
to be performed in a minimum of time. Thus
arterial glues will open the door for hundreds of
surgeons to perform operations once limited to a
handful of specialists.
The amazing bonding qualities of these various
new glues promise to make them an increasingly
useful tool of medical science. Someday part of
your body may be literally glued together!
COVER:
A pair of collie puppies brings sheer de
light to this little charmer photographed
by L. Willinger. For the story of what a
dog can teach your child, turn to page It.
November 25. 1WI
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