Abstract

The history of modern psychosurgery has been written in several ways, weaving around many pioneers in the field during the 19th century. Often neglected in this history is Gottlieb Burckhardt (1836-1907), who performed the first psychosurgical procedures as early as 1888, several decades before the work of Egas Moniz (1874-1955). The unconventional and original case series of Burckhardt, who claimed success in 50% of patients (3 of 6), had met with overt criticism from his contemporary medical colleagues. The authors describe 2 illustrative cases of cortical extirpation performed by Burckhardt and review his pioneering case series for surgical outcome, despite the ambiguity in postoperative evaluation criteria. Although Burckhardt discontinued the project after publication of his surgical results in 1891, neurosurgeons around the world continued to investigate psychosurgery and revitalized his ideas in 1910; psychosurgery subsequently developed into a full-fledged neurosurgical specialty.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

Manjila S, Rengachary S, Xavier AR, Parker B, Guthikonda M

Institution

Department of Neurosurgery, Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Medical Center, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA.

Source

Neurosurgical focus 25:1 2008 pg E9

MeSH

Adult
Brain Diseases
Cerebral Cortex
Female
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgical Procedures
Peer Review
Postoperative Complications
Psychosurgery
Treatment Outcome

Pub Type(s)

Biography
Historical Article
Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

18590386