Medicine: New Burn Cure

A “singular and ideal” healing ointment for severe burns—long sought by good physicians—was announced last fortnight by Dr. Thomas F. P. Walsh of Chicago’s Mercy Hospital. He spoke before Cincinnati’s Institutum Divi Thomae, * whose staff, directed by Dr. George Speri Sperti, produced in their laboratory the ointment Dr. Walsh tested in the hospital. Dr. Sperti believes that the research work which produced the new treatment will “go down in history as second to none other, including the work of Pasteur.”

The new burn cure contains hormone-like substances which are extracted from yeast and fish-liver oils and stimulate the growth of any sort of cells. Applying this

“Biodyne” ointment to 100 patients in the burn clinic of Mercy Hospital, Dr. Walsh found that:

> Unlike most chemical bactericides, the new ointment sterilized wounds without further destroying or devitalizing the injured tissues.

> Took away all pain at once, so that narcotics and sedatives were unnecessary.

> Quickened healing. Third-degree (severe) burns, which ordinarily require three to six months for healing, were healed in an average of only 16.5 days if uninfected, in 20 days if infected.

> Eliminated disfiguring scars in nearly all severe cases.

> Made skin-grafting unnecessary in all cases.

In one typical case, a steelworker was horribly burned when molten metal filled his boot. After eight months of hospitalization and every type of conventional treatment from skin-grafting to sulfa drugs, his leg was still unhealed and infected, and he had a high fever. Several doctors decided that amputation was inevitable. Dr. Walsh took over and treated him with “Biodyne” ointment. In four months, the charred leg was good as new.

Exactly how the new substance works is not known. Theory is that, when some cells are injured or destroyed, the injured cells produce hormones which stimulate cellular multiplication so that the tissues heal. The Institutum scientists set out to manufacture these Hypothetical hormones (which Dr. Sperti” christened “biodynes”) in the laboratory so that they could be applied to human wounds to accelerate healing. At first the biodynes were created by exposing tissues from rat and chicken embryos to ultraviolet rays. This injured some of the cells and induced production of the healing substances in them. The scientists now extract the biodynes from 1) fish-liver oils and 2) heated yeast cells. The extracts are mixed with a petrolatum and lanolin base, sell for $3 a pound. Dr. Sperti said last week he could produce 1,000 pounds of “Biodyne” ointment a day if he had a priority for fish oils. The Chicago Fire Department has already adopted the new ointment, carries five pounds of it in all life-saving trucks.

* A Catholic postgraduate research foundation, whose faculty members need not be Catholics but must not be atheists. Reason: atheists “cannot think straight.”