Spinal anesthesia for the better, I believe, in proper hands, and decidedly for the worse, if not, is being employed with greater and greater frequency with the probability that more and more needles will be broken off in the spine and require removal. Having had occasion to remove segments of broken spinal anesthesia needles from three patients, in one of whom the needle was broken off in the spine in our own clinic, and in two elsewhere, I thought it possible that a description of the plan which was pursued might be of value to others.
No doubt many others have employed similar measures, but the procedure has been so helpful to us that it is illustrated and described in the hope that it may aid others in a most annoying and distressing situation. I know of no catastrophe which, while perhaps not alarming, is more disturbing to contemplate than