Celiac Ganglionectomy for Raynaud’s Disease

Abstract

Three years ago (July, 1937) I reported in this journal¹ the immediate results of bilateral celiac ganglionectomy for a case of Raynaud’s disease. The patient was a forty-two year old male who had had pain in the fingers and toes for fifteen years. He also had had intermittent numbness and tingling in the fingers, with the symptoms becoming progressive in nature so that he had been unable to work for five years. For three and a half years he had had paroxysmal pain in the finger tips which were very sensitive to pressure. This pain was so severe that he had become addicted to morphine for relief. There was a loss of sensation in the hands and feet and even in hot weather the fingers were ice cold. Typical gangrene developed in the fingers, necessitating the amputation of the right middle finger in 1934 and the left middle finger in 1937, three months before he was first seen at the Clinic (Fig. 1).

A left celiac ganglionectomy was performed on May 3, 1937 and a right celiac ganglionectomy on May 17, 1937. Complete relief from the symptoms of Raynaud’s disease occurred almost simultaneously with the completion of the first operation. The patient has returned at intervals for check-ups, and was examined here on April 11, 1940. At this time he stated that since the operations he no longer felt any pain nor any sensation of coldness in the extremities. A complete physical examination revealed the patient to be in good. . .