Neurosurgery
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Historical Article
The Department of Neurosurgery of the University of Cape Town: a brief historical overview.
Neurosurgery as an independent discipline at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town commenced with the return of Hermann de Villiers Hammann from Munich in 1946. He developed the unit with Alex Gonski, J. P. ⋯ Peter has been the Helen and Morris Mauerberger Professor and chairman of the department, which now consists of six full-time neurosurgeons, six part-time consultants, seven registrars, and two interns. Two to three thousand outpatients are treated each year, and approximately 1000 surgical procedures are performed. Sociopolitical changes in South Africa have resulted in a reduction in funding of tertiary academic health services, and this presents major challenges for the future.
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Biography Historical Article
Neurosurgery's man of the century: Harvey Cushing--the man and his legacy.
There is overwhelming consensus that Harvey Cushing represents the neurosurgeon of the century, at least for the first half of the 20th century. This article explores a variety of factors that led to his preeminent position in the specialty of neurological surgery.
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Biography Historical Article
Harvey Cushing at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
Harvey Cushing's years at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston were marked by the establishment of neurosurgery as a surgical subspecialty. As a clinical neurosurgeon, he performed more than 2000 brain tumor operations in that time and reduced neurosurgical mortality from 50% to only 8%. As a teacher, he trained a whole generation of neurosurgical leaders, created the Society of Neurosurgeons, and indirectly led to the founding of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. ⋯ As an investigator, he described Cushing's disease, the Cushing reflex, Cushing's ulcer, the "third circulation" of cerebrospinal fluid, and a variety of other phenomena. And as a book collector, he developed perhaps the most significant collection of antiquarian medical and surgical texts extant. In these Brigham years, he clearly became the Neurosurgeon of the Century.
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Harvey Cushing began surgical training with William Halsted at Johns Hopkins in 1896. Cushing joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1900 and spent 1 year in Europe in the laboratory of Theodore Kocher. He returned to Johns Hopkins, where he founded neurosurgery as an independent specialty, established the concept of the clinician scientist, discovered the hormonal properties of the pituitary gland and founded endocrinology, introduced intraoperative x-rays into surgical practice, introduced blood pressure monitoring into the operating room, and wrote the first definitive text on neurosurgery. Although there have been many pioneers in our field, Cushing, more than anyone else, developed neurosurgery as a specialty and left a legacy of talented neurosurgeons to develop and expand the field.
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Microneurosurgery is Professor Yaşargil's legacy. Its impact on patient outcomes, surgeons' abilities, the field of neurosurgery in particular, and the art of surgery in general is great, profound, and everlasting. Professor Yaşargil led a revolution that has transformed neurosurgery into the fine art we practice today. ⋯ It has been an honor, a great opportunity, and a phenomenal experience to spend the last 5 years with him at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. There, he represents the very best in knowledge, expertise, dexterity, and, above all, devotion to advancing the field of neurosurgery. Most enjoyable have been his stimulating intellect and inspiring vision.