THE TREATMENT OF SCIATICA BY DEEP PERINEURAL INFILTRATING INJECTIONS OF SALT SOLUTION

Nowhere in the domain of nerve pains is the agony of neuralgia, its chronicity and rebelliousness to treatment so well illustrated as in tic douloureux and sciatica. Consistent with the dearth of facts concerning the etiology and pathogenesis of these clinical entities, some of the applied therapy has been unreasonable and much of it unavailing. In this paper I shall report some personal experiences with the deep intraneural or perineural injections of salt solution under pressure for sciatica, in the hope that my conclusions, added to those of others before me in the literature, may gain recognition for the underlying principle and facilitate a wider adoption of this particular method. In the choice of what seemed to me to be the best solution and technic—in short, the best method—I acknowledge that I have borrowed generously from the clinical reports, conclusions and discussions on this subject by Lange, Umber, Alexander, Schloesser,