TY - JOUR
T1 - "No performance in surgery more interesting and satisfactory"
T2 - Harvey Cushing and his experience with spinal cord tumors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Historical vignette
AU - Dasenbrock, Hormuzdiyar H.
AU - Pendleton, Courtney
AU - Cohen-Gadol, Aaron A.
AU - Wolinsky, Jean Paul
AU - Gokaslan, Ziya L
AU - Quinones-Hinojosa, Alfredo
AU - Bydon, Ali
PY - 2011/3
Y1 - 2011/3
N2 - Although Harvey Cushing was a neurosurgical pioneer, his work on the spine remains largely unknown. In fact, other than his own publications, Cushing's patients with pathological lesions of the spine who were treated while he was at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, including those with spinal cord tumors, have never been previously described. The authors report on 7 patients with spinal cord tumors that Cushing treated surgically between 1898 and 1911: 2 extradural, 3 intradural extramedullary, and 2 intramedullary tumors. The authors also describe 10 patients in whom Cushing performed an "exploratory laminectomy" expecting to find a tumor, but in whom no oncological pathological entity was found. Cushing's spine surgeries were limited by challenges in making the correct diagnosis, lack of surgical precedent, and difficulty in achieving adequate intraoperative hemostasis. Other than briefly mentioning 2 of the 4 adult patients in his landmark monograph on meningiomas, these cases-both those involving tumors and those in which he performed exploratory laminectomies - have never been published before. Moreover, these cases illustrate the evolution that Harvey Cushing underwent as a spine surgeon.
AB - Although Harvey Cushing was a neurosurgical pioneer, his work on the spine remains largely unknown. In fact, other than his own publications, Cushing's patients with pathological lesions of the spine who were treated while he was at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, including those with spinal cord tumors, have never been previously described. The authors report on 7 patients with spinal cord tumors that Cushing treated surgically between 1898 and 1911: 2 extradural, 3 intradural extramedullary, and 2 intramedullary tumors. The authors also describe 10 patients in whom Cushing performed an "exploratory laminectomy" expecting to find a tumor, but in whom no oncological pathological entity was found. Cushing's spine surgeries were limited by challenges in making the correct diagnosis, lack of surgical precedent, and difficulty in achieving adequate intraoperative hemostasis. Other than briefly mentioning 2 of the 4 adult patients in his landmark monograph on meningiomas, these cases-both those involving tumors and those in which he performed exploratory laminectomies - have never been published before. Moreover, these cases illustrate the evolution that Harvey Cushing underwent as a spine surgeon.
KW - Harvey Cushing
KW - History of neurosurgery
KW - Sacrococcygeal teratoma
KW - Spinal cord tumor
KW - Spinal meningioma
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952392528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79952392528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3171/2010.10.SPINE10147
DO - 10.3171/2010.10.SPINE10147
M3 - Article
C2 - 21250810
AN - SCOPUS:79952392528
SN - 1547-5654
VL - 14
SP - 412
EP - 420
JO - Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine
JF - Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine
IS - 3
ER -