The effects of splanchnicectomy on the blood pressure in hypertension; a controlled study

The effect of supradiaphragmatic splanchnicectomy on the blood pressure of 294 hypertensive patients followed for 10 to 18 months after surgery is compared with the effects of nonspecific medical management in a control group of 79 patients similarly studied. The data are presented in simple graphic form. It is concluded that 29 per cent of the hypertensive patients had reductions in blood pressure outside the range of spontaneous variation, that the vascular complications of hypertension decreased the likelihood of a good result, and that extension of the sympathetic ganglionectomy upward appeared to increase the frequency of good results without requiring a two-stage operation or producing significant postoperative orthostatic hypotension.