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Today's Highlights
CAT NEWS
Wednesday June 15, 2005
RALEIGH -- Born with just two feet, George Bailey staggered through his first
year of life as an invalid cat, propping himself on his good paws and dragging
his stumps behind. Each trip to the food dish was a painful ballet. Then Tuesday
morning, doctors strapped him to an operating table for two hours, drilled into
his right tibia and fastened a prosthetic leg with titanium screws. If the
surgery takes and George Bailey's leg bone grows over the prosthesis, he will be
bouncing on a new foot made from spring steel inside of six weeks.
"He's a pioneer," said Al Simmons, his Moore County owner. "We tried crutch tips, furniture tips, all sorts of Velcro. Nothing worked."
Simmons and his wife will pay thousands for the surgery at N.C. State University. But there are implications beyond George Bailey's wobbly gait. He's the first animal fitted with a custom-made prosthesis that fits inside the bone. In Scandinavia, the same technique has already been applied to humans. A man there was fitted with a detachable thumb, said Greg Thomas, NCSU spokesman.Fitting a prosthesis inside a bone rather than attaching it to a stump makes a stronger connection, relieving stress on areas of the body that aren't designed to take it. It is not unlike total hip replacement, said Dr. Denis Marcellin, who operated on the cat.
"Someday," he said, "that may be something we do for people who are missing their fingers."
On Tuesday, Marcellin and a team of assistants strapped George Bailey to a metal operating table shortly after 9 a.m.His tongue dangled, and a tiny IV poked from a front leg. His tail was wrapped in purple tape, and a pair of clamps held his shaven stubs in the air. He looked like a Christmas turkey.About 9:40, Marcellin began cutting skin from the tip of George Bailey's right rear leg, pushing it upward until a few inches of bone gleamed through.He cut the end off the cat's tibia and drilled a small hole up the middle. He drilled again with a larger bit, then a larger one, until the hole was wide enough to admit a titanium shaft.Crowds of veterinary students gathered to watch through a window, and engineering students who helped design the prosthesis took pictures. More students stopped to watch the operation being broadcast on a screen hanging over a nearby hallway.
Continued in weekly newsletter......