For Navicular Disease, when that malady is diagnosed, the earlier neurectomy is performed the better. The greater work given to the diseased bursa and bone, and the return of the contracted heels to the normal, brought about by the greater freedom with which the foot is used, are claimed by many to effect a cure.
Writing of navicular disease, and mentioning his belief in the possibility of the diseased bone effecting its own repair after the operation, Harold Leeney, M.R.C.V.S., says:
'The expansion of the heel, and rapid development of the frog (in this and many other cases) immediately after the operation, has not, I venture to think, attracted so much attention as it deserves, and may have something to do with those cases which appear to be actually cured, not merely made to go sound by absence of pain.'[A]
[Footnote A: Veterinary Record, vol. xi., p. 297.]
Speaking of the median operation before a meeting of the Central Veterinary Medical Society, Professor Hobday says:[A]
[Footnote A: Veterinary Record, vol. xiii., p. 427.]
'For old-standing lamenesses, when due to splints, exostoses, chronically sprained, thickened, and painful perforans and perforatus tendons, or cases of that kind which cause pain by pressing on the adjacent nerve structures, after all other known methods have failed, median neurectomy is the operation which will be most likely to give the animal a new lease of life and usefulness.'
'Of the Humanity and Utility of Neurectomy there can be no question whatever, and provided the cases are well selected, and the operation is efficiently performed, the advantages to be derived from it are most striking as well as enduring. But the disadvantages attending the loss of sensation in the foot have been brought forward on many occasions as an argument against neurectomy, and no one can deny that the foot with sensation is better than one without that faculty. But in a long experience of the operation I have never found these disadvantages outweigh the great advantages which have immediately followed it.'[A]
[Footnote A: Veterinary Journal, vol. ix., p. 178 (Fleming).]
Beyond these, the direct advantages of neurectomy, are other and more indirect advantages which claim attention.