Neurectomy performed for tic douloureux permanently cures some patients, and effectually stops the pain of nearly all the rest for a period of from six months to two years, yet the majority sooner or later relapse. Clinical experience has demonstrated to me the somewhat surprising fact that these relapsed cases may be freed from their pain over and over again by repeated operations at exactly the same spot, even though the surgeon fail utterly to get away any more tissue from the stump of the nerve.
This result was unexpected to nie, for Ross and others who speak of repeating the neurectomy in relapsed cases seem, like myself, to have supposed it necessary to find the stump of the nerve and operate directly upon it. Clinical experience also shows the important fact that operations performed in the old cicatrix cause little or no shock or hemorrhage, and, while arresting the