Analgesic Properties of the X-Ray

Abstract

RADIOLOGISTS have been so engrossed with the larger problems of diagnosis and treatment that they have frequently not sufficiently emphasized the commoner conditions in which the X-ray may be of great service. In the relief afforded from many types of pain, X-ray therapy possesses almost specific value. The writer has searched the Journals of the two great American associations, published during the last ten years, for original contributions discussing the use of the X-ray in the relief of pain, and has found very few. In 1921, G. E. Richards (1), in discussing before the Radiological Society some of the less common uses of X-ray therapy, called attention to its value in controlling the painful seizures of tic douloureux: “More help,” he stated, “can be afforded sufferers from this terrible malady than is being accomplished.” In 1925, before the American Roentgen Ray Society, C. A. Pfender (2) discussed “The Roentgen Treatment of Chronic Spondylitis Deformans,” and emphasized, from his own experience and that of others, the great value of the X-ray in relieving the pain of this condition, especially when used in the early stages and in smaller doses. He ascribed the pain of spondylitis to “pressure on the nerve through the vertebral foramen.” He attributed the relief from pain to the action of the ray in reducing inflammation and swelling in the connective tissue surrounding the nerve and compressing it in the intervertebral foramen. In 1926, before the Radiological Society, A. U. Desjardins (3) dealt in a comprehensive way with the general subject, “Analgesic Property of Roentgen Rays.” He attributed the unfamiliarity of physicians in general, and radiologists in particular, with the pain-relieving properties of the roentgen ray, to the fact that such pain relief is concomitant with, and often overshadowed by, the other beneficial effects of X-ray therapy. He enumerated striking illustrations of the relief from pain obtained in such conditions as malignancies, corns and callosities of the feet, chronic arthritis, furuncles and carbuncles, and phlebitis. He suggested the relief as possibly being due to the reduction of swelling and relief of pressure on the nerve, but more probably to a true specific analgesic action on the nerve cells themselves. The writer, in co-operation with the other members of the Bigelow Clinic, has for many years been using the X-ray for the relief of various types of pain. The results have been so uniformly good, and the field of application so constantly widening, that he has thought it wise to review and report some of these results.