CENTRAL COURSE OF AFFERENT FIBERS FOR PAIN IN FACIAL GLOSSOPHARYNGEAL AND VAGUS NERVES

Abstract

THE PROGRESS of neurosurgery in modern times not only has facilitated advances in the treatment of diseases of the nervous system but has afforded possibilities for study of many problems of anatomic and physiologic interest in man. The results of surgical interventions to a certain extent may be compared with those of experimental procedures. Especially with respect to sensibility, information of considerable value may be gained from the effects of surgical procedures in man, as many sources of error are inherent in studies of this sort in animals. The present communication is concerned with an instance of this—more precisely, the distribution within the medulla oblongata of the fibers in the facial, glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves conveying impulses of pain. In 1938 Sjöqvist¹published a new operative procedure for eliminating pain in the face through cutting the fibers of the bulbospinal tract (descending root) of the trigeminal nerve. Anatomic studies