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Observations on Forty-Eight Cases

WALLACE B. HAMBY, M.D.; BURTON M. SHINNERS, M.D.; INA A. MARSH, M.D.

Arch Surg. 1948;57(1):171-177.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

IN 1938 Sjöqvist¹ described trigeminal tractotomy, an operation planned to sever the descending spinal tract of the fifth cranial nerve. By this maneuver he was able to relieve patients of facial pain without sacrificing facial touch sensibility. Subsequently others have reported results confirming his conclusions.

Since April 27, 1939, we have performed forty-eight tractotomies, with a 16.6 per cent mortality rate (fig. 1). Thirty-five of the operations were done for the relief of trigeminal neuralgia. The pain involved the first division in 28 cases, was bilateral in 1 and had affected the opposite side after a previous rhizotomy in 6. Two of the 35 patients died, 1 of uremia seven days after operation and 1 after four days of difficult and irregular respiration. Although the operation was attended with no noticeable difficulties, at necropsy the pons and the medulla were edematous, with scattered petechial hemorrhages. This consituted a mortality . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BUFFALO

From the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and the Buffalo General Hospital.

Footnotes
Read before the Society of Neurological Surgeons, Cleveland, June 6, 1947.

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