Chordotomy

A pronouncement last week from two neurosurgeons of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, stated that the pain, if not the doom of cancer, can be mitigated by an operation. The surgeons are William G. Spiller and Charles H. Frazier. Their operation--chordotomy-- severs the sensory nerves in the spinal column. It is performed in cases where the pain is too great for drugs to relieve.

Drs. Spiller and Frazier published the results of eight operations, of which six successfully ended pain. In two cases, some pain fibres escaped the knife. Said Surgeon Spiller: "It requires on the part of the operator a visualization of the microscopic anatomy of the cord and a realization that a slight misplacement of the incision may cause motor-paralysis of one or both of the lower limbs."