Cranial and Cervical Rhizotomy in the Control of Pain for Malignancies of the Head and Neck

Abstract

Surgical treatment of pain in head and neck cancer has developed slowly as a by-product of the search for procedures for the relief of other types of head and neck pain. Spiller and Frazier¹³ and others in the early part of this century developed trigeminal neurotomy through the temporal route as a practical operation for the relief of the intractable pain of trigeminal neuralgia. Davis⁴ in 1923 reported that section of the trigeminal nerve alone did not relieve deep facial pain which was found to be transmitted by a portion of the facial nerve. In 1924, Adson¹ described the relief of the paroxyms of throat pain in glossopharyngeal neuralgia by section of the ninth cranial nerve. In 1927, Temple Fay⁶ published the results of his experience in sectioning various cranial nerves, including the vagus and upper cervical dorsal roots. He stressed the importance of the latter