A Critical Evaluation of Contrast (Pantopaque) Myelography
Not long after Roentgen discovered X-Ray, the idea of outlining various hollow organs with opaque media came into vogue. Two more recent examples of this are myelography and angiocardiography. Both of these are rather ingenious mechanical procedures that have a great appeal to the gadgeteer mind. Sometimes such investigative methods so intrigue us that we lose sight of the patient as a whole, consisting of more than a spinal canal or a cardiovascular system. We forget that this patient may be able to tell us something, if questioned skillfully, that will reveal more than a score of mechanical methods and that keen observation with our own God-given senses, unaided by complicated machinery, may be more illuminating than the most delicate of laboratory test. However, because of the complexities and variabilities of human factors, it behooves us to develop objective diagnostic methods providing that we do not let their results overshadow the consideration of the patient as a whole. | Any objective investigative procedure, to be of any value, must be reasonably accurate. Those that sometimes result in false positive findings, particularly in those cases with deficient clinical observation, are responsible for expensive unnecessary surgery and other therapy, and, of perhaps greater importance, the development of untold numbers of neurotics. | The purpose of this thesis is to investigate one such diagnostic procedure, myelography, and to attempt to determine its proper place in the armamentarium of neurosurgical diagnosis.
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