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Historical Vignette: Cerebral Cortical Stimulation and Surgery for Epilepsy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

F. Maroun ,
W. Fitzgerald ,
T. Rasmussen ,
J. C. Jacob ,
M. Sadler  and
G. Murray
F. Maroun*
Affiliation:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland
W. Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
Curtis Memorial Hospital, St. Anthony, Newfoundland
T. Rasmussen
Affiliation:
Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal
J. C. Jacob
Affiliation:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland
G. Murray
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
*
Discipline of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Health Sciences Centre, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3V6
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Abstract

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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.

Information

Type
Historical Neurology and Neurosurgery
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , November 1996 , pp. 303 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1996

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