
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994                   TAG: 9402210089
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

OLD MEDICAL PRACTICE - LEECHES - PROVES USEFUL IN MODERN TIMES, TOO

Modern surgery and a medical practice that goes back more than 2,500 years have combined to save the ear of a man who had the appendage severed in an automobile accident, doctors said Friday.

The ear of the 19-year-old Navy man, Shawn Owens, was reattached in emergency surgery Feb. 12 at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital by Dr. Robert H. Schnarrs, who used leeches to restore blood circulation to the ear.

"I can't feel it," Owens, who is assigned to the dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island, said of the bloodsucking creatures that are attached to the side of his head. "My ear is numb. I don't feel a thing, except sometimes I kind of feel them squirming around a little bit."

The unusual procedure was pronounced a success, and Owens was listed in stable condition Friday. He said he expects to be released from the hospital - and the leeches - on Monday.

"Leeches are an automatic type of therapy that do not have to be constantly monitored," Schnarrs said in a statement released by the hospital. "The leech also injects a material that prevents clotting."

According to Schnarrs, the alternative to using leeches would have been to make an incision that would allow blood to drain. That would have required suctioning the area and watching for clotting.

The leeches for Owens' surgery were acquired from Colonial Williamsburg, a restored 18th century tourist attraction that maintains an apothecary. Other leeches - they have to be changed periodically, hospital spokeswoman Deborah A. Myers said - were obtained from a New York company.

Leeches are still used sometimes in plastic and reconstructive surgery, although the practice of using them to drain "bad blood" is long outdated.

Myers said rescue workers at the accident scene in Virginia Beach retrieved Owens' ear and packed it in ice. The leeches were brought to the hospital from Williamsburg by state police.

The accident occurred when the car Owens was riding in struck a patch of ice. He said he was told before going into surgery that leeches would be used, and he had no objection.

A native of Chariton, Iowa, near Des Moines, he said leeches were found in streams around where he lived as a boy.

"It was a long one - about seven hours," he said of the operation. Afterwards, "one of the nurses bought me some gummy worms."

by CNB