Lobotomy meaning: A second procedure

A second procedure, called transorbital lobotomy , was devised in 1945 and involved the manipulation of a pointed instrument resembling an ice pick driven with a mallet through the thin bony wall of the eye socket and into the prefrontal brain. Lobotomy is a type of brain surgery that involves cutting or removing part of the frontal lobe to treat mental health conditions. Learn about the history, effects, and risks of lobotomy , and why it is no longer used today. Lobotomy , surgical procedure in which the nerve pathways in a lobe or lobes of the brain are severed from those in other areas. The procedure was formerly used as a radical therapeutic measure to help patients with severe mental illness. It has since been superseded by medications and other therapies.