Abstract
Cordotomy, surgical lesioning of the lateral spinothalmic tract, has been practiced for the relief of pain since the early 1900s. However, since the advent of improved oral medications, cordotomy is now only reserved for patients with nociceptive, unilateral pain typical secondary to cancer pathology. The outcomes demonstrate substantial yet transient pain relief; pain relief can last about 3–6 months. With percutaneous CT guided cordotomies, complications such as postop motor weakness, central apnea, and dysesthetic pain are rare.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Grant F. Value of cordotomy for the relief of pain. Ann Surg. 1930;92(6):998–1006.
Mullan S, Harper PV, Hekmatpanah J, Torres H, Dobbin G. Percutaneous interruption of spinal-pain tracts by means of a strontium needle. J Neurosurg. 1963;20:931–9.
Rosomoff HL, Brown CJ, Sheptak P. Percutaneous radiofrequency cervical cordotomy: technique. J Neurosurg. 1965;23:639–44.
Kanpolat Y, Ugur HC, Ayten M, Elhan AH. Computed tomography-guided percutaneous cordotomy for intractable pain in malignancy. Neurosurgery. 2009;64:187–94.
Lahuerta J, Bowsher D, Lipton S, Buxton PH. Percutaneous cervical cordotomy: a review of 181 operations on 146 patients with a study on the location of “pain fibers” in the C-2 spinal cord segment of 29 cases. J Neurosurg. 1994;80:975–85.
Raslan AM. Percutaneous computed tomography-guided radiofrequency ablation of upper spinal cord pain pathways for cancer-related pain. Neurosurgery. 2008;62:226–34.
Bekar A, Taskapilioglu MO, Eser P, Bilgin H. CT-guided high-level percutaneous cervical cordotomy for intractable cancer pain. Turk Neurosurg. 2017;27(1):133–7.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Parmar, V.K., Resnick, D.K. (2019). Cordotomy. In: Abd-Elsayed, A. (eds) Pain. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99124-5_190
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99124-5_190
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99123-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99124-5
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)