Retrograde degeneration in the spinal nerves.

  • Ranson, Stephen Walter, 1880-1942.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Retrograde degeneration in the spinal nerves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    sents itself with striking uniformity (Vulpian '68-'6c), Erlen- meyer '72, Hayem '76, Dejerine and Mayor '78, Hayem and Gilbert '84, Friedlander and Krause '86, Dudley '86, Rey- nolds '87, Marinesco '92, Elzholz '00, on human material; and Homen '90, Vanlair '91, Pilcz '99, on animals). The mi- croscopical changes are of some importance. The individual fibers are much decreased in size, the change affecting chiefly the myelin sheaths. Many of the fibers are entirely devoid of myelin and there is a tendency for them to be grouped in bundles. These altered fibers have been interpreted, sometimes as atrophied, some- times as regenerated fibers; but the former interpretation seems to be the better supported. Of the authors who have placed them- selves on record with regard to this point, six regard the change as an atrophy, while four believe that the altered fibers represent an attempt at regeneration; and on the side of the majority are included the two most thorough investigations: that of Fried- lander and Krause ('86) recording eight cases of amputation, and that of Homen ('90) recording experiments on more than forty dogs. As a typical account of these alterations we may summarize the description given by Friedlander and Krause ('86). In their eight cases the nerve stumps presented patches of normal appear- ance separated by areas entirely devoid of medullated fibers; still other areas, constituting the larger portion of the cross-section contained about half the proper number. In the atrophied bundles the individual fibers are about one-third their normal size, and may be recognized as faint refractile rings, which do not take the Wei- gert stain. At the center of these rings a barely recognizable point represents the remains of the axis cylinder. In addition to this simple atrophy there occurs in the proximal portion of some of the severed nerve fibers a true degeneration, not distinguishable histologically from Wallerian degeneration. This may be seen in Marchi preparations from the central stumps of experimentally resected nerves, removed twenty to forty days after the operation (Redlick '93, Moschaew '93, Biedl '97). Some observers have reported negative results with this stain; but it must be remembered in this connection that the degeneration in the central stump occurs about fifteen days later than true Wal- lerian degeneration (Biedl '97, van Gehuchten '03), and that the peripheral degeneration is at its height at a time when the