THIS paper is concerned with the description of a brain stem that was obtained nine months after section of the trigeminal tract had been made in the medulla oblongata, following the method suggested by Sjöqvist.1
No other description of a similar case can be found in the literature, and the requisite conditions for scientific inquiry were satisfactory. The patient was a reliable witness, and it was possible to record the postoperative objective sensory changes with reasonable precision. The operation technically was satisfactory. The specimen was obtained nine months after the operation, and thus any degenerative changes that were likely to occur would have been completed. The specimen was obtained within a few hours after death, and so the postmortem changes were minimal.
REPORT OF A CASE
A man aged 43 had for one year suffered from continuous pain in the left side of his face that could not be