Cerebral DECOMPRESSION.PALLIATIVE Operations in the Treatment of Tumors of the Brain, Based on the Observation of Fourteen Cases.

Palliative operations in cases of brain tumor are not new, and the temporary benefits to be derived in this way have been fully recognized by many physicians during many years. It has seemed time well spent to examine some of the reports of cases treated by trephining, or other method of opening the skull, for the relief of pressure when a tumor could not be localized, or if localized could not be removed. Unquestionably many cases have been omitted, and yet I have collected sufficient to demonstrate that palliative treatment has an important place in cerebral surgery. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Annandale1said, in 1894, that more than twenty years previously he had opened the skull of a patient whose symptoms were those of general brain pressure and, although no special condition was found, temporary relief was marked. Another case of this kind, he says, was operated on by Sir