Novosibirsk Surgeons Use Novel Methods In Handling Heavy Tb Cases

In complicated surgery physicians from the Tuberculosis Research Institute, based in Novosibirsk, use novel physiatric methods. They give a chance to survive to many grave TB cases, says the Institute's director Vladimir Krasnov. For them, when the process of lung decay becomes irreversible, surgery is the only opportunity to survive. The only problem in such operations is that the bronchus suture often fails and inflammatory processes lead to breakage of tissues and the suture material. For his operations Professor Krasnov uses nickeline-titanium clamps (so-called "memory metal"). Such clamps remember the form they are to keep inside the body. Before surgery the structure is cooled and shaped so as to be introduced inside the body. Under the impact of bodily temperature the structure "remembers" its initial shape. Krasnov's idea that his clamps reliably fix the bronchial tubes and do not allow them to be destroyed has been corroborated by the success of five surgical operations. The memory metal was developed by the medical alloys laboratory at Tomsk State University and has found its way into orthopaedics, oncology and facial surgery.