Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Surg Proced. Mar 28, 2015; 5(1): 111-118
Published online Mar 28, 2015. doi: 10.5412/wjsp.v5.i1.111
Published online Mar 28, 2015. doi: 10.5412/wjsp.v5.i1.111
Cordotomy procedures for cancer pain: A discussion of surgical procedures and a review of the literature
Wendell B Lake, Peter E Konrad, Department of Neurosurgery, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, United States
Author contributions: Lake WB and Konrad PE contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: Wendell B Lake, no conflicts of interest; Peter E Konrad, honoraria from Medtronic Inc.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Peter E Konrad, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 1500 21st Ave South, Suite 4333, Nashville, TN 37232, United States. peter.konrad@vanderbilt.edu
Telephone: +1-615-3439822 Fax: +1-615-3436948
Received: September 28, 2014
Peer-review started: September 29, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: January 10, 2015
Accepted: January 30, 2015
Article in press: February 2, 2015
Published online: March 28, 2015
Processing time: 186 Days and 3.1 Hours
Peer-review started: September 29, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: January 10, 2015
Accepted: January 30, 2015
Article in press: February 2, 2015
Published online: March 28, 2015
Processing time: 186 Days and 3.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Pain is a significant symptom that degrades the quality of life for terminally ill cancer patients. For many terminally ill oncology patients medical management is sufficient. However, some patient’s will fail medical management or have unwanted side effects from their medical regimen. Patient’s failing medical management may warrant consideration for interventional procedures such as cordotomy, dorsal root entry zone or midline myelotomy. Of these three procedures only midline myelotomy can address visceral pain, the others are best suited to somatic pain. This review discusses surgical anatomy, patient selection and surgical nuances of these techniques.