Leucotomy: A Follow-up of Sixty Cases

A Neurosurgical Unit was opened at Purdysburn Hospital in October, 1948, to carry out pre-frontal leucotomy on suitable cases. By the end of June, 1950, 60 cases had been treated of whom 31 were from Purdysburn and 29 from County Mental Hospitals. Wbile it is recognised that the time since operation is much too short to attempt to draw dogmatic conclusions, nevertheless a preliminary report on the results obtained might be of help in the selection of patients in the future and in the chQice of technique to be used. In all sixty cases the blind lateral approach, as standardized by Freeman and Watts, was employed. This is carried out by means of trephine holes marked out by taking a point on the skin three centimetres behind the outer angle of the eye and six centimetres vertically above the zygoma. The maximum cut possible was made in each case at right angles to the parasagittal plane and as near to the tip of the anterior horn of the ventricle as possible. Bleeding was encountered in a number of cases but was eventually controlled. The following table gives a summary of the types of patients dealt with and the effect of the operation on their mental condition TABLE I.