A contribution to the pathology of sciatica / by J. Ramsay Hunt.

  • Hunt, James Ramsay, 1872-1937.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A contribution to the pathology of sciatica / by J. Ramsay Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ATICA* BY J. RAMSAY HUNT, M.D., of New York Chief of the Clinic for Nervous Diseases and Instructor of Nervous Dis- eases in the Cornell University Medical College; Neurologist to the City Hospital; Assistant Physician to the Montefiore Home. (From the Pathologic Laboratory of the Cornell University Medical College, New York.) Although sciatica is one of the commoner forms of nervous disease, it is rarely that an opportunity has been afforded to study the underlying pathologic changes, more especially as the affection itself is never a menace to life. In the literature of this subject, which has now attained enormous dimensions, one is surprised to find on what meager anatomic facts our knowledge of the pathology is based. I have been able to collect only 11 cases in which the condition of the nerve was noted postmortem, the majority of these observations emanating from the older writers. Of this number, three only received histologic study. During the past 15 years, a period distinguished by great activity in the field of neuropathology, I can find no record of a postmortem examination. The knowledge gained from the study of these few cases, has been further supplemented by the inspection and palpation of the nerve trunk during the operation of nerve stretching, formerly so popular, and the occa- sional examination of excised fragments of the sheath. Clinically speaking, sciatica may occur in two forms: The neurotic, a pure neuralgic form, in which pain is practically the sole symptom, and the neuritic, in which other symptoms are present, indicating inflammation of the sheath and involvement of the nerve fibers. *Read before the New York Academy of Medicine, February 16, 1906.