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JAMA. 1984;251(1):13-14.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Hopes that chemonucleolysis would prove to be the definitive cure for many cases of low back pain may be dissolving, according to several speakers at the recent Congress of Neurological Surgeons meeting in Chicago. Little more than a year after the Food and Drug Administration approved the papain enzyme for treatment of so-called slipped disks (JAMA [MEDICAL NEWS] 1983;249:1115-1123), many physicians are disappointed.

"My papaya is going to be limited to the breakfast table," vowed Charles Fager, MD, chair, Neurosurgery Department, Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Mass, moderator of a workshop on chymopapain injection. Although Fager expressed the greatest disdain for chymopapain, calling it "a stab in the back... with its lure of a quick and easy fix," the three other panel members also plainly had second thoughts about the efficacy of the enzyme each once had hailed.

The reaction of George W. Sypert, MD, professor of neurosurgery, University of Florida Health . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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