XIV.— PLANTAR NEURECTOMY. 



In cases of obstinate lameness you have frequently seen me perform 

 plantar neurectomy, both above and below the fetlock, according to the 

 seat and extent of the morbid changes we are called on to remedy. 

 When the lesions are limited to the back part of the foot I prefer the 

 low operation, reserving the other for cases affecting the front or sides of 

 the entire foot, or the coronet or pastern. I wish this morning to draw 

 your attention to the advantages and drawbacks of these operations, 

 and incidentally to clear up a disputed point in their history. 



Plantar neurectomy was first conceived and performed by Moorcroft, 

 a professor at the Veterinary College in London. At the commence- 

 ment of this century Moorcroft made his earliest experiments on 

 section of the plantar nerves. He did not publish his results until 

 eighteen years later. There is no reason to believe that Sewell was the 

 inventor of this operation, but he helped to extend its use in England, 

 and showed by numerous published cases the benefits to be derived 

 from it. Moorcroft practised indifferently section or excision above or 

 below the fetlock. Sewell recommended neurectomy below the fetlock, 

 in order to leave a certain degree of sensation in the tissues of the foot. 

 Blaine suggested high double neurotomy for ringbone. Coleman and 

 Goodwin also studied neurectomy, and reported a certain number of 

 observations in support of its efficacy. 



Percival had given a good description of the operation in his 

 lectures, which Narcisse Girard analysed in 1824 in the first volume of 

 the Recueil de Mcdecine VHcrinaire. From this time the operation 

 began to be practised in France. Its introduction was not unopposed. 

 In the discussions concerning it many objections were made, because 

 during the period of trial it had not only given contradictory results, 

 but caused a considerable number of accidents. Renault, Delafond, 

 Leblanc, and Bouley helped to define its field of usefulness. 



Neurectomy is a palliative operation. Except in rare cases it pro- 

 duces no curative effect ; it has no direct influence on the lesions, nor 

 on the morbid processes for which it is practised, but by destroying 

 sensation in the regions in which these lesions and processes occur it 



