The role of sympathectomy in the treatment of causalgia.

Although the holocaust of two world wars has provided ample opportunity for further stU(ly, causalgia remains an enigma, for its pathogenesis is still obscure and the treatment by sympathectomy largely empirical. In this paper some of the current theories of the pathogenesis of causalgia will be reviewed and an attempt made to explain the role of sympathectomy in the relief of pain. These observations are based on a study of forty-eight patients treated in various peripheral nerve injury centres in Great Britain, and the author is indebted to the surgeons working in these centres for the use of their detailed case reports.