On restoration of the upper lip / by R.J. Mackenzie.

  • Mackenzie, R. J. (Richard James), 1821-1854.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On restoration of the upper lip / by R.J. Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ON RESTORATION OF THE UPPER LIP. BY K. J. MACKENZIE, F.R.C.S.E., JUNIOR ORDINARY SURGEON TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY, EDINBURGH. [from THE MONTHLY JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, for OCTOBER 1851.] {Read at Meeting of Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgieal Society, on July 9th 1851.) Whilst the lower lip is a common seat of malignant disease, and its removal, in part or in whole, consequently an operation which is frequently performed, the upper lip is rarely the seat of cancer or other disease requiring removal by the knife. To remedy the deficiency produced by the loss of the lower lip, various modes of operative procedure have been recommended, whilst, from cases of deficiency of the upper lip being comparatively rare, much less attention has been bestowed in attempts to restore the lost parts in this situation. Blasius, Dieffenbach and others have successfully restored the lost upper lip by flaps, cut in different ways, from the cheeks; and in cases, where the upper lip alone has been destroyed, it will not require much ingenuity on the part of the surgeon to effect the re¬ storation in one of these ways. In cases of harelip in which the cleft was unusually wide, so as to amount nearly to absence of the upper lip, the edges of the wide cleft have been allowed to be brought into apposition by cutting through the whole thickness of the cheek, in a line curved upwards from each angle of the mouth. I have resorted to this proceeding, and have more than once seen it successfully practised by others, in cases of deficiency of the greater part of the lip, when the soft parts in the situation of the cheek were in a sound condition. These modes of operation are suited for cases where the upper lip alone is deficient, and in which the cheek has not been involved in the injury or disease by which the parts have been destroyed. One [ SUTHERLAND AND KNOX, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH.