Stereotactic tractotomy in the surgical treatment of mental illness

Abstract

Seeds of radioactive Y90 were stereotactically implanted in the substantia innominata beneath the caudate nucleus in 90 patients suffering from various psychiatric illnesses. In the first 50 cases there was marked improvement in patients with depression and satisfactory results in those with obsessional illness, anxiety states, hysteria and hypochondrisis. The technique was useless in cases of chronic pain but 2 cases, in which previous leukotomies had failed, were improved. Epilepsy, incontinence, and deterioration of personality did not appear as post-operative complications and, in general, the working capacity of the patients improved.