The surgical treatment of facial neuralgia.

  • Hutchinson, J. (Jonathan), 1859-1933.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The surgical treatment of facial neuralgia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    fairly ascribe this nervous instability and loss of mental control to the agony so long endured, the want of sleep and rest, and to the grave effects of drug-treatment. Perhaps the depressing effect of many futile operations must also be taken into account. Thus it will be seen there is no reason to suppose that a tendency to insanity or perverted mental action can indirectly cause the neuralgia; it is far more probable that the reverse takes place. Epileptiform neuralgia is confined to no class, age, or rank in life. Some of its sufferers are men and women of the highest intellect, of the strictest lives ; others have never worked hard except with their hands, and many have lived freely as regards alcohol and the like. The disease would appear to be especially prevalent in the United States, but almost every European country seems to furnish its quota of sufferers. It would be, however, a matter of great interest to ascertain its relative prevalence in India and other tropical countries ; it may be found that it is mainly confined to those having a temperate or cold season. The local distribution of the neuralgia in epilepti- form cases is of much importance as an indication of the form the operation should take. Analysing six- teen cases operated on by Italian surgeons, we find that all three divisions of the fifth nerve were in- volved in only four (25 per cent.). In the other twelve cases the second division (superior maxil- lary) was alone concerned in two cases, the third