A contribution to brain surgery with special reference to brain tumors / by M. Allen Starr.

  • Moses Allen Starr
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to brain surgery with special reference to brain tumors / by M. Allen Starr. 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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    McCosh. The man had all the symptoms of a tumor of the corpora quadrigemina, with very great disten- tion of the ventricles, producing a tremendous increase of intracranial pressure. The removal of a consid- erable section of the skull from the parietal region relieved his headache for a few weeks, but had no effect upon the optic neuritis or upon the other symp- toms, and he subsequently died. These facts should certainly be considered in the management of any case of brain tumor. And while at first sight it may appear that the operation of trephining in such cases merely prolongs the life of a patient whose sufferings are extreme and whose death is sure to follow, and is in no sense curative, yet it is well known that surgeons undertake operations for the removal of tumors in other parts of the body, even when it seems probable that these tumors will recur; and there are many patients who prefer to take the risks of an operation in order to secure a longer lease of life. It is also to be remembered that a marked change in the circulatory conditions, consequent upon the relief of the intracranial pressure, may in some cases aid in the effect of the absorptive power of some drugs. For it is not to be forgotten that there are cases of brain tumor in which the diagnosis is per- fectly certain, which have recovered under the use of mercurial inunctions together with very large doses of iodide of potassium. Oppenheim,' in his recent mono- graph on brain tumors, calls particular attention to this fact, and I desire to put on record a case which offers a striking confirmation of it. I do not allude in this connection to cases of gummy tumor, for I think it is generally admitted that under the American system of treatment by inunctions of mercury, contin- ued to the point of salivation, and very large doses, as high as five hundred grains a day of iodide of potas- sium, gummy tumors can be absorbed. I have, per- ' “ Die GeschwUlste des Gehirns,” Wien, 1896.
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