In regard to exophthalmic goiter, Jaboulay made a simple section of the sympathetic early in 1896. In September of the same year Jonnesco excised the superior and middle ganglia.
Jonnesco was the first, in 1896, to do a bilateral resection of all three cervical ganglia, though it is claimed by a Polish surgeon, Baracz, that he proposed the same in 1893. To Professor Jonnesco furthermore belongs the credit of having first excised the superior ganglion for glaucoma in September, 1897.
Ball of St. Louis was the first to remove the superior cervical ganglion for optic-nerve atrophy. The date of this operation was June 24, 1899.
Terrier, Guillemain, and Malherbe, in their “Chirurgie du Cou,” 1898, were among the first to give the surgery of the sympathetic a place in a text-book.
Among those who have operated on the cervical sympathetic for the relief either of glaucoma or exophthalmic goiter, or both, are Abadie, Réclus, Gerard-Marchant, Chauffand and Quénu, Jeunet, Bled, Ball, Renaud, and Bartlett.
Panas is opposed to sympathectomy in glaucoma. He reports seeing a patient in whom, three months after the operation, vision was still declining.
François-Frank, at a meeting of the Paris Academy of Medicine, held May 22, 1899, spoke of the effect of sympathectomy on the circulation of the thyroid gland, brain, and eyes, and on the heart. He believes that the operation can easily produce good results.
Doyon has described the trophic changes produced in the rabbit by excision of the cervical sympathetic.
CONCLUSIONS.
From a study of the cases of sympathectomy made by Jonnesco and others, and from the observation of my own cases, I offer these conclusions: