RIO DE JANEIRO

Endoscopic Phrenicectomy  Dr. F. de Souza Mendes recently delivered a lecture before the Sociedade de Medicina e Cirurgia de Rio de Janeiro on his technic for performing phrenicectomy under direct endoscopy of the operative field. The aim of direct endoscopy in this procedure is to minimize, as much as possible, the operative trauma. The speaker performed phrenicectomy under direct endoscopy of the operative field in fifteen patients, with the following technic: At a point 3 cm. above the clavicle, behind the posterior head of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, a 1 cm. horizontal incision is made, through the skin down to the superficial cervical aponeurosis. In this opening an aural dilator of the Hartmann type and of the proper length is introduced to form a passage through which the light of a head mirror is directed, so that it illuminates entirely the scalenus anterior muscle and the phrenic nerve, which should be