On the Question of the Advisability of Ligaturing the Jugular Vein in the Treatment of Sigmoid-Sinus Thrombosis

Many cases of thrombosis of the sigmoid sinus, secondary to inflammation of the middle ear, have been successfully treated without ligature of the internal jugular vein. Some cases, indeed, have terminated favourably although neither the sinus itself nor the jugular vein have been directly treated. I have myself, in the practice of other surgeons, seen one case in which pyaemic abscesses formed in the sterno-clavicular joint and over the olecranon, and another in which there were signs and symptoms of lung implication secondary to otitis media, and yet these cases recovered after antrectomy alone, the sinuses and jugular veins not being touched. In both of them