[Phineas Gage, 'Tan' and the importance of case reports].
BACKGROUND
The original descriptions of the frontal lobe injury of Phineas Gage (1848) and the slowly growing tumor of 'Tan', Broca's famous patient (1861), are examples of how a simple case report can teach important lessons, some of them still discussed a century and a half later.


METHODS
In this article, the original sources of both of these seminal cases, in Boston and Paris, have been reviewed and are briefly summarized. The lessons learned from them in the effort to localize brain functions are explained and set in the context of modern evidence-based medicine.
Rosselli
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Neurólogo independiente, Bogotá, Colombia. diego_rosselli@post.harvard.edu
D001900:Boston; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000473:pathology*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000193:education* / Q000266:history*; D010297:Paris