A splanchnic nerve lumbar sympathectomy was a surgical gamble used in about
10% of patients with advanced hypertension. Dramatic benefit was occasionally produced
at the cost of 0.5%–8.8% mortality, impotence and unpleasant orthostatic hypotension (3).
A view from the millennium: the
practice of cardiology circa 1950
and thereafter
Mark E. Silverman, MD, FACCa
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine,
Emory University School of Medicine and Chief of
Cardiology, Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia,
USA
Manuscript received August 28, 1998; revised
manuscript received November 24, 1998, accepted
January 5, 1999.