A contribution to brain surgery with special reference to brain tumors / by M. Allen Starr.

  • Starr, M. Allen (Moses Allen), 1854-1932.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to brain surgery with special reference to brain tumors / by M. Allen Starr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    A CONTRIBUTION TO BRAIN SURGERY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BRAIN TUMORS.* ■1 By M. ALLEN STARR, M.D., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE MIND AND NERVOUS SYSTEM, COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK; CONSULTING NEUROLOGIST TO THE PRESBYTERIAN AND ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITALS, AND TO THE NEW YORK EYE AND EAR IN- FIRMARY. Gentlemen: Before entering upon the subject of operation for brain tumors, which I have been asked to discuss, I desire to say a few words regarding . operative interference in cases of epilepsy. It is, of ' , course, admitted by all that in ordinary idiopathic I epilepsy with general convulsions, or with attacks of a ; petit mal type, there ife no reason for any surgical in- j * terference. The only type of epilepsy in whihh a j . question of operation can arise is that of so-called cortical epilepsy, where an irritant lesion of one re- j gion of the brain produces localized spasms. Such I lesions may be traumatic in origin, from fractures, localized meningitis, small hemorrhages, or cysts; or the epilepsy may be the first sign of a beginning ; tumor, abscess, or sclerotic patch. It is for this class of cases that operations have been very largely under- taken in the past and are still being done. In my book on “ Brain Surgery,” published in March, 1893, I collected twenty-nine cases from litera- ture and recorded thirteen cases of my own, in which operations had been done for the relief of this condi- ' Address delivered at the meeting of the New York State Med- ical Society, January 29, 1896.