Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
-
Front Neurol Neurosci · Jan 2018
Review Historical ArticleLouis-Ferdinand Céline: From First World War Neurological Wound to Mythomania.
The writer Louis Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) developed a personal style which changed twentieth century French literature. As an enlisted soldier in 1912, he was involved in the Great War and his right arm was severely wounded. After the war, he became a medical doctor and a writer who published his first novel, Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night), in 1932. ⋯ Using medical and military archives, Céline's First World War medical mythology is reviewed to distinguish facts from fiction concerning his wound and other war neurological disturbances. We present the history of his radial nerve lesion and surgery, and confirm that Céline was never trepanned. Two other controversial neurological points, his left ear disease and his possible shell shock, are also discussed.
-
Front Neurol Neurosci · Jan 2018
Historical ArticleWriters as Shell Shock Witnesses during World War I.
The issue of First World War shell shock has been documented mainly from a medical perspective. Many medical texts dealing with war psychoneuroses and their aggressive treatments, such as electrotherapy, were published during the war. Accounts from shell-shocked soldiers are rare. ⋯ Some psychiatric forms of shell shock are present in the work of the pacifist writer Jean Giono (1895-1970), the naturalist Maurice Genevoix (1890-1980), who suffered himself from a section of the left median and ulnar nerves, or the British poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). War hysteria and pathological fear have been described, on several occasions, by Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961) or the German writer Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970). Electrotherapy has been scarcely reported except by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961).
-
Front Neurol Neurosci · Jan 2018
Historical ArticleCreative Minds in the Aftermath of the Great War: Four Neurologically Wounded Artists.
Many artists were involved in the First World War. Some of them were mobilized, like millions of soldiers, others enlisted to fight on the battlefield. The stories of writers who returned neurologically wounded from the war, such as Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) or Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), are well-known. ⋯ The sculptor Maurice Prost (1894-1967), suffering from a neuroma due to the loss of his arm, built a special device to continue his work as a wildlife artist. The painter Georges Braque (1882-1963) was trepanned but carried on with his cubist work without ever mentioning the conflict. Conversely, the painter Fernand Léger (1881-1955), who suffered from a war neurosis, produced a significant war testimony through drawings and letters.
-
Angiography is a useful, important, common imaging method, with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) remaining the gold standard for luminal imaging. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is minimally invasive and quite accurate in the evaluation of stenosis. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a good screening tool with the least invasiveness. ⋯ HR-MRI for vessel walls can present the characteristic radiological findings for each intracranial artery disease such as atherosclerosis, dissection, moyamoya disease, and vasculitis. The radiological features are useful to differentiate among intracranial artery disease. This chapter discusses the role and radiological features of angiography and HR-MRI for vessel walls.
-
The Great War accelerated the development of neurological knowledge. Many neurological signs and syndromes, as well as new nosological entities such as war psychoneuroses, were described during the conflict. The period between 1914 and 1918 was the first time in which many neurologists were concentrated in wartime neurology centres and confronted with a number of neurological patients never seen before. ⋯ Others were academics who were already authoritative names in the field of neurology. Whilst they were too old to be officially mobilised, they nevertheless worked in their militarised neurology departments of civil hospitals. We present here the careers of a few French neurologists during the Great War, including Charles Foix (1882-1927), René Cruchet (1875-1959), Georges Guillain (1876-1961), Jean Lhermitte (1877-1959), Clovis Vincent (1879-1947), Gustave Roussy (1874-1948), and Paul Sollier (1861-1933).