ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 12, 1996 TAG: 9612120041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: KING GEORGE
Leeches, one of history's oldest healers, came in handy in an operation last week to reattach the lip of a King George County man.
Donald Dobson said he was bent over his dog last Thursday when it snapped at him, ripping off part of his lip.
Mary Washington Hospital called Fredericksburg plastic surgeon Dr. Harold Bautista, who had reattached several fingers, but never a lip. Bautista said the problem with lip surgery is that it is very difficult to drain the blood after the lip is reattached.
That's where the leeches came in. After Bautista used microvascular surgery to repair the severed flesh, he attached some of the bloodsucking worms to Dobson's lip.
Dobson will keep the leeches on his lip until it heals, when new veins will be able to drain the blood.
Dobson has to remove the swollen leeches every eight hours, and replace them with a new pair. So far, the leech treatment is working fine, Bautista said. Blood is draining from the wound, and the lip is healing.
Dobson said he hopes to go home this week.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 31 linesby CNB