Brief note on the relief of pain in certain cases of cancer of the tongue / by W. Morrant Baker.
- William Morrant Baker
- Date:
- [1893]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Brief note on the relief of pain in certain cases of cancer of the tongue / by W. Morrant Baker. 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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![[Reprinted from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. XXIX.] \ BRIEF NOTE ON THE RELIEF OF PAIN IN CERTAIN OASES OF CANCER OF TFIE TONGUE. BY W. MORRANT BAKER. There are few cases in which a surgeon is more anxious to give relief, and in which the task is often more difficult, than in some of those instances of cancer of the tongue and door of the mouth which are too far advanced to admit of removal by a surgical operation. The acute sensibility of the parts concerned, the excessive tenderness, the intense neuralgic pain radiating to parts other than those immediately involved, with the highly vascular condition of the diseased tissues, and, as a conse- quence, the reflex excitability which leads to the greatly in- creased secretion of mucus and saliva, are among the most prominent symptoms. Many years since it was hoped that Moore’s operation of dividing the gustatory nerve would give great relief in such cases; and without doubt the operation has been, in many instances, a source of relief. But, unfortunately, the cases in which one is most anxious to employ it are frequently those in which it is most difficult, not to say in some cases dangei’ous. I refer more particularly to those cases in which the mouth cannot be fully opened, and in which the tongue, enlarged and ulcerated, is bound immovably to the floor of the mouth and neighbouring parts. Under these circumstances, the swollen tongue will be often observed in close contact with the teeth of the lower jaw on the corresponding side, usually the molars and bicuspids ; while its surface has taken an impress from them, or has become ulcerated superficially, even when the teeth are perfectly sound. The conditions, indeed, resemble pretty closely those which are present in the cases of so-called in-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22381302_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
