[Use of stereotaxic neurosurgery in the treatment of pain in cervicofacial cancers].

Mesencephalic tractotomy employing the stereotaxic method was conducted 12 times in 11 patients with pain due to cervicofacial cancer only partially relieved by high doses of opiates. Immediate results were spectacular in 10 cases and partial on the other 2 occasions. However, relief was not permanent even in patients in whom the greatest improvement was obtained, and the usual analgesics had to be prescribed after 3 months. The operation, which requires only a short period of anesthesia, was always well supported, complications being anesthesia of one side of the body in 2 patients and convergence paralysis in two cases, one of which was transient. Mesencephalic tractotomy constitutes a new weapon for the treatment of diffuse cervicofacial cancer pain not responding to major medical treatment. Elective thermocoagulation of the Vth and IXth nerves was also successfully employed for systematized pains.