Bone bobbins and metal buttons

Lawrence, Ghislaine

Bone bobbins and metal buttons

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Lawrence, Ghislaine

Date published

June 2002

Abstract

Bone bobbins and metal buttons sound like the contents of a sewing basket rather than a surgeon's kit. But bobbins and buttons have all been tried as solutions to the surgeon's dilemma of how best to make anastomoses in the gastrointestinal tract. The problem of getting secure anastomosis without stenosis has been known for centuries. Medieval writers advocated using the trachea of a goose to keep the gut lumen open, secured by four interrupted sutures. Later, cylinders of fish glue, cardboard tubes smeared with sweet oil and turpentine, solid rods of tallow, metal rings, and tubes of elder wood were all tried.