The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-21
NERVES OF FEELING CUT.
Remarkable Surgical Operation to
Stop Pain

Cincinnati, June 21.-Amputation of
the sensory nerves was the only rem
edy left to relieve the excruciating suf-
ferings of Mr.. Geo. DOwden, a wealthy
merchant of Creensburg, o., who has
been a patient at the Good Samaritan
hospital preparing for the ordeal
A little over year ago Mr.. Dowden
experience sharp, shooting pains,
ranging from the shoulder through
both arms. and so intense became the
agony at times that he could not find
relief even in the most powerful OPT
ates. The disease was variOusly dag
nosed and treated under the hands of
skillful physicians, but that they erred
in the diagnosis was sufficiently proved
in the fact that all treatment was un-
availing.
Mr. Dowden is so years of age and
the constant sufferings soon began to
tell upon his system, and as he was
growing worse from day to day he was
advised to come to this city to consult
some of its able physicians. In making
his selection he chose a surgeon who
in daring and knowledge in his special
branch of medicine, has no peer. He
saw the case, and after careful inquiry
into its history and thorough exam
nation of the patient, decided that the
trouble lay in the spinal cord. To con
firm this diagnosis it was necessary to
make a difficult and hazardous opera
ton. to which Mr.. Dowden readily as
scented, as life had already become
burden under the existing circum-
stances.
Every preparation having been made
to secure the best septic conditions the
operation was undertaken yesterday.
After the patient had been placed I'M
der the influence of ether, an incsion
was made from the medulla oblongata.
or the base of the brain. in a straight
line along the cord to the end of the
several cerVical vertebrate, making an
opening about three and One-half inches
long, and disclosing the spinal cord to
that length. Strange to say neither
the surrounding tissue nor the cord it
self showed any Inflammation, and the
only conclusion that could be reached
was that the trouble lay within the
cord, and if that were the case, medi-
cineS and knife were useless.
In this dilemma only one course re-
manned, and that was to amputate the
nerves. The operation was rare, and
had scarcely been attempted a dozen
times in the history of surgery. 1t
was true that nerves had often been
stretched and the amputation of the
fifth nerve in tic-dOulOureux, or facial
neura lgia, had been successfully DeI--
formed, but the nerves anterior to the
spinal cord had always been approach
ed with caution by even the most dar-
ing surgeons. But nothing could be
gained by heSitancy, and on the sDur
of the moment the operation was be-
gun. For one hour and a half the
keen edged scalpel piled in dangerous
proximity to the cord, while the ampu-
tatiOn of the delicate nerves that sup
ply sensation to the shoulders and arms
were being cut, destroying the conduits
of pain and leaving those parts of the
patients body as insensible to feeling
as if they were so much stone with
the irrigation, dressing and stretching
of the wound the operation was COM
pleted.
When the patient shall have recover
ed from the temporary shock due to
the operation he will find all pain gone
He will then experience the strange
sensation of entire loss of feeling Al
though the effective use of the shoI1I-
ders and arms will be in no wise i'm
paired, as the motor nerves were not
disturbed. HOI