An exploratory study of personality factors in thromboangiitis obliterans: A study of 18 patients

Eighteen carefully selected male patients having thromboangiitis obliterans were studied by psychodiagnostic methods (Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test and Sentence Completion), and the findings were evaluated and rated by three independent psychologists skilled in diagnostic testing. Certain personality traits emerged as being characteristic of the group as a whole. The patients in this group were characterized mainly by poorly suppressed hostility, together with guilt over hostile and aggressive impulses; negativism, along with a desire to conform socially; ambition combined with strong unconscious desires for dependency which seemed to be entirely unacceptable at a conscious level; and fear of emotional involvement, particularly with members of the opposite sex, who were seen as rigid, prudish and unloving. While the findings from this size sample should not be regarded as characteristic of all patients with thromboangiitis obliterans, these individuals revealed certain traits to a degree which merits further consideration and exploration. © 1956, Sage Publications. All rights reserved

A technique for extensive thoracolumbar sympathectomy without rib resection

In the evolution of the surgical treatment of arterial hypertension the trend has been toward increasingly more extensive sympathetic denervation. The procedures by which this has been achieved have often been associated with inherent technical difficulties to which have been attributed a high incidence of postoperative complications. An operative technique is described by which an extensive thoracolumbar sympathectomy is performed by a transpleural approach without rib resection. Following this procedure there is a marked decrease in the frequency of the complications ordinarily encountered after a retropleural operation with rib resection. © 1950