NEUROTOMY, NEURECTOMY, UNNERVING 



163 



Fig. 503. Neurotomy Needle 



view of the nerve is obtained. A blunt-pointed needle (fig. 503, and 



Plate LIII, fig. 2) with an eye 



in it is then passed under it. 



While so placed, the end of a 



piece of carbolized silk or gut 



is passed through the eye of 



the needle and drawn back 



under the nerve, which may 



now be raised from its bed 



and divided by a pair of 



Fig. 504. Neurotomy Needle and Knife combined 



blunt-pointed scissors. The chief difficulty attaching to this rather delicate 

 operation is to recognize the nerve when exposed, and to distinguish 

 between it and the artery 

 which runs alongside of it. 

 In old horses, the victims 

 of many blisters, these two 

 structures are somewhat 

 firmly attached together, 

 and require careful dissec- 

 tion. 



Three-quarters of an 

 inch of the nerve trunk 

 must now be removed 

 from that portion con- 

 nected with the foot. Then 

 the wound must be irri- 

 gated with an antiseptic, 

 and covered with a pad 

 of cotton -wool supported 

 by a clean linen bandage, 

 and subsequently treated 

 by the ordinary antiseptic 

 method. 



Many modern practi- 

 tioners who are adept at 

 this operation make a trans- 

 verse incision, and cut down 

 upon the nerve with very 

 little disturbance of the adjacent tissues. The nerve is divided by means 

 of a combined needle and knife (fig. 504). In order to remove a sufficient 

 length of it, through an aperture no more than half an inch long (fig. 505), 



Fig. 505. High Plantar Neurectomy by Transverse Incision 



