FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 342:436-438 February 10, 2000 Number 6 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited Related Article by Allen, K. B.

To the Editor: The placebo effect of surgery for the treatment of angina that is mentioned by Lange and Hillis (Sept. 30 issue)¹ in their editorial on transmyocardial laser revascularization deserves elaboration. In the era before direct coronary revascularization, internal-thoracic-artery ligation was touted as a method to increase myocardial blood flow and relieve anginal symptoms. Initial reports by Ellis et al.² and Kitchell et al.³ indicated that 68 to 75 percent of patients had clinical improvement, including approximately 35 percent who had complete relief and 42 percent with objective improvements, as measured electrocardiographically. These investigators were honest and intelligent but . . . [Full Text of this Article]

References

HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.