Surgical Management of Spastic Diplegia

To the Editor: The recent review of the surgical management of spastic diplegia and cerebral palsy by Park and Owen (March 12 issue)¹ appears to be an authoritative and objective opinion on the beneficial effects of dorsal rhizotomy for these conditions. We suggest that readers should be informed that there is vigorous controversy about the effectiveness of the operation. In 1990 we reviewed both the neurophysiologic basis and the clinical claims for this procedure.² We stated, “On close examination of the available data, we conclude that convincing evidence of the efficacy of dorsal rhizotomy for improving motor function in cerebral…