Historical vignette: cerebral cortical stimulation and surgery for epilepsy.
In 1909, in an isolated community hospital, on the northern tip of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, Dr. John Mason Little, Jr. performed electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex, prior to cortical excision, as treatment of recurrent cerebral seizures in three patients. Extracts from Dr. Little's written records of the clinical features, the neurosurgical procedures and cerebral cortical stimulation are summarised. A brief review of the contemporaneous history of neurosurgical procedures for epilepsy provides a prospective of Dr. Little's remarkable surgical virtuosity.
Maroun
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Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
Fitzgerald
W
W
Rasmussen
T
T
Jacob
J C
JC
Sadler
M
M
Murray
G
G
D002170:Canada; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000601:surgery; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000266:history* / Q000601:surgery; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States