Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-11-08
BRAIN SURGERY.
OF ITS EXTRAORDINARY
ACHIEVEMENTS.
1posing the Brain and Remov;no
Iumors - Wounds of the
Brain No Longer Nee
essarily Fatal.

Dr' bennett had diagnosticated |
iot only the existence, but the exact 10
cahty of tumor in the brain, OF when ,
not the least visible evidence existed OH |
the exterior of the skull, and asked Mr.. |
Goodlee to attempt its removal. The !
head was opened and the brain exposed.
No tumor was seen, but so certain were
they of the diagnosis that Mr.. Goodlee
boldly cut open the healthy brain and
discovered tumor the size of walnut
and removed it. After doing we'll for
three weeks inflammation set in, and the
patient died on the twenty-sixth day.
But, like the failure of the first Atlantic
cable, it pointed the way to success, and
now there have been twenty tumors
removed from the brain, of which seven
teen have been removed from the cere-
brum, with eleven recoveries, and three
from the more dangerous region of the
cerebellum, all of which proved fatal.
Until this recent innovation every case of
less. The size of the tumor successfully
removed has added to the astonishment
with which surgeons view the fact of
their ability to remove them at all.
Tumors measuring as much as three and
from n quarter to over third of a
pound, have been removed and the pa
tients have recovered.
Another disease formerly almost inva-
riably fatal is abscess of the brain. In
the majority of cases this comes as a re-
suit of long standing disease of the ear,
which, after awhile, involves the bone
and finally the brain. So long ago as
1879 Mr.. Macewen, Of Glasgow, dag
nosticated an abscess in the brain, and
wished to operate upon it. The parents
declined the operation, and the patient
died. After death Macewen operated
precisely as he would have done during
| life, found the abscess and evacuated the
pus, thus showing how he could probably
have saved the child's life. Since then
the cases treated IN such a manner
amoun4 to scores, and more than half of
them e recovered without a bad symp-
! tom.
In inju. of the skull involving the
! bro;n +ba / .ar o-tor;a, nro o,,,o.;,,, ~,
wounded, and the blood that is poured
out between the skull and the brain pro-
duces such pressure as to be speedily ia
tai. In some cases, even without any
wound, the larger arteries are ruptured
follows the hemorrhage. Nowadays, in
both of these injuries, ANY well-instructed
surgeon will open the head, secure the
bleeding vessel, and turn out the clot,
with good chance of recovery in a large
number of cases. Even gunshot wounds
of the brain are no longer necessarily IA
tai. Among a number of other success
full cases one has been recently reported
in which the ball went all the way from
the forehead to the back of the head and
after striking the bone, rebounded into
the brain. The back of the skull was
opened, the ball removed, and rubber
drainage tube of the calibre of a leadpen-
Gil passed in the track of the ball com
pletely through the head, and the patient
to opening the skull, with antiseptic pre-
cautions similar to those already de-
scrlbed, that the latest writer on trephin-
ing (SeydeD estimates that the trephining
per Sc is fatal only in 1.6 per cent. of the
cases. Mr.. Horsley has recently pub
lished a most remarkable paper, inclnd-
ing ten operations on the brain, in which,
without anything on the exterior to indi-
cate its situation, the site of the disease
was correctly located in all, and nine OF
them recovered after operation.
Almost equally astonishing are the
results of brain surgery in certain cases OF
epilepsy; for the surgical treatment OF
the cases justifying such interference has
been attended with the most brilliant re-
suits. In these cases the spasm begins in
particular part of the body, for example.
the hand or the thumb, or it is limited to
one arm, or to one side of the body.
Some of them have been operated upon
without any benefit, but a large number
of other cases have been operated on and
either benefited or. in not a few cases,
have been completely restored to health.