The surgical operation of cutting a nerve root, as, for example, to relieve the pain of TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA.
n. a surgical procedure in which selected nerve roots are cut at the point where they emerge from the spinal cord. In posterior rhizotomy the posterior (sensory) nerve roots are cut for the relief of intractable pain in the organs served by these nerves. An anterior rhizotomy – the cutting of the anterior (motor) nerve roots – is sometimes done for the relief of severe muscle spasm or *dystonia.
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