This webinar will closely examine the British history of neurosurgery, from its humble beginnings of McEwan of Glasgow operating on a dural lesion in 1879 to 21st century technical advancements and super specialisation.
Hold-on tight while we discover how neurosurgery evolved in the UK over 150 years in just 1 hour.
A brief history of neurosurgery
Modern, informed, scientific ' brain surgery' started in Great Britain, before any other country, when McEwan of Glasgow operated on a dural lesion in 1879, using anaesthesia, antisepsis and the new science of brain localisation.
Within Six years the first appointment to perform brain surgery was made when the great surgeon scientist, Sir Victor Horsley joined the staff at the National Hospital in Queen Square. His teaching heavily influenced a generation of surgeons who did occasional 'brain surgery' before WWI, but it was in the interwar years that three surgeons, trained by the great Bostonian neurosurgeon, Harvey Cushing, set up their neurosurgical units in Oxford, Manchester and Edinburgh.
The Society of British Neurological Surgeons was founded in 1926, but neurosurgical activity continued to be an occasional activity until WWII when the Mobile Neurosurgical units of the Army and Airforce trained a whole cadre of young men, who, post war, brought their skills to civilian life, filling positions in the civilian Emergency Units set up during wartime.
Formal training started in the 1950's but surgery remained fairly crude and unsophisticated until scientific developments of the 1960's and '70's, when unit numbers and consultant staff started to increase. These changes will be discussed as well as further technical advances leading to the development of super specialisation, along with more formalised training mandated by government decree, to the point that the specialty now fills, two decades into the 21st century.
The Clinical Neurosciences Section is offering this webinar series to students and trainees at a reduced rate, to support ongoing training and development during this time.
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This meeting is a part of the RSM Clinical Neurosciences Section webinar series; Current and historical perspectives, that will be broadcast weekly on Thursday evenings from 6:00pm. The series will explore a variety of neurological and neurosurgical themes. If you would like to find out more about the series, please visit the Clinical Neurosciences Section homepage.
