Pain: Its Mechanisms and Neurosurgical Control

The treatment of severe pain by surgical means is a fairly recent innovation. Only in the last 20 years has the subject grown to sufficient size to warrant a book such as this. The authors have analyzed the records of 420 patients suffering from persistent severe pain on whom operation was justified. Most of the patients were seen between 1935 and 1949, but a few, particularly those with cardiac pain, go as far back as 1927. The clinical material since 1950 has not been analyzed, as the authors, quite justifiably, wish to have at least a five year follow-up period before reaching a conclusion in regard to the efficiency of any particular procedure. The first part of the book discusses the fundamental aspects of pain in the end organs and the afferent tracts to the central nervous system. Care is taken to evaluate also the psychiatric aspect of pain, particularly