Cognitive function fifty-six years after surgical treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy: A case study.

We report a long-term follow-up investigation of a patient who was operated in 1954 to relieve intractable temporal lobe seizures characterized by automatism and amnesia. Neuropsychological review at 16 months after surgery showed a slight residual impairment of verbal comprehension and verbal recall and good nonverbal skills. Seizure-free since the operation except for two attacks in the early postoperative years, the patient has been off medication for 25 years and has pursued a successful career as an artist. Our investigation at 56 postoperative years focused on cognitive skills, with some emphasis on learning and memory; a clinical examination was also performed, and the anatomical extent of the resection was determined on 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. Four age- and IQ-appropriate women were tested as healthy control subjects. The patient showed material-specific impairments in language and verbal memory compared with the control subjects and also compared with her own earlier performance, but her performance on other cognitive tasks did not differ from that of the control subjects. Thus, her specific deficits had worsened over time, and she was also impaired compared with healthy individuals of her age, but her deficits remained confined to the verbal sphere, consistent with her temporal lobe seizure focus and surgery.

Josef Klingler's models of white matter tracts: influences on neuroanatomy, neurosurgery, and neuroimaging.

During the 1930s, white matter tracts began to assume relevance for neurosurgery, especially after Cajal's work. In many reviews of white matter neurobiology, the seminal contributions of Josef Klingler (1888-1963) and their neurological applications have been overlooked. In 1934 at the University of Basel under Eugen Ludwig, Klingler developed a new method of dissection based on a freezing technique for brain tissue that eloquently revealed the white matter tracts. Klingler worked with anatomists, surgeons, and other scientists, and his models and dissections of white matter tracts remain arguably the most elegant ever created. He stressed 3-dimensional anatomic relationships and laid the foundation for defining mesial temporal, limbic, insular, and thalamic fiber and functional relationships and contributed to the potential of stereotactic neurosurgery. Around 1947, Klingler was part of a Swiss-German group that independently performed the first stereotactic thalamotomies, basing their targeting and logic on Klingler's white matter studies, describing various applications of stereotaxy and showing Klingler's work integrated into a craniocerebral topographic system for targeting with external localization of eloquent brain structures and stimulation of deep thalamic nuclei. Klingler's work has received renewed interest because it is applicable for correlating the results of the fiber-mapping paradigms from diffusion tensor imaging to actual anatomic evidence. Although others have described white matter tracts, none have had as much practical impact on neuroscience as Klinger's work. More importantly, Josef Klingler was an encouraging mentor, influencing neurosurgeons, neuroscientists, and brain imaging for more than three quarters of a century.

Anatomy, technology, art, and culture: toward a realistic perspective of the brain.

In the 15th century, brain illustration began to change from a schematic system that involved scant objective rendering of the brain, to accurate depictions based on anatomical dissections that demanded significant artistic talent. Notable examples of this innovation are the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci (1498-1504), Andreas Vesalius' association with the bottega of Titian to produce the drawings of Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (1543), and Christopher Wren's illustrations for Thomas Willis' Cerebri Anatome (1664). These works appeared during the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment, when advances in brain imaging, or really brain rendering, reflected not only the abilities and dedications of the artists, but also the influences of important cultural and scientific factors. Anatomy and human dissection became popular social phenomena as well as scholarly pursuits, linked with the world of the fine arts. The working philosophy of these artists involved active participation in both anatomical study and illustration, and the belief that their discoveries of the natural world could best be communicated by rendering them in objective form (that is, with realistic perspective). From their studies emerged the beginning of contemporary brain imaging. In this article, the authors examine how the brain began to be imaged in realism within a cultural and scientific milieu that witnessed the emergence of anatomical dissection, the geometry of linear perspective, and the closer confluence of art and science.

Osler vindicated: glioma of the leg center with Jacksonian epilepsy; removal and cure, with a 50-year follow-up. Historical vignette.

On December 14, 1883, William Osler, then pathologist at the Montreal General Hospital, presented the specimen of a brain with an almond-sized glioma beneath the right motor cortex to the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society. The brain specimen was from a young woman who had suffered from intermittent Jacksonian seizures for 14 years and had eventually died in status epilepticus. Aware of the pioneering removal of a tumor from the cortex reported on in 1885 by Bennett and Godlee, Osler wrote of his case, "this was an instance in which operation would have been justifiable and possibly have been the means of saving life." In 1953, a young man with Jacksonian attacks that began in his foot underwent removal of a Grade I glioma from the central fissure. The operation was performed in an awake craniotomy during which cortical mapping was used to define the motor and sensory cortices. Treatment with focal radiation followed, and afterward the patient became seizure-free, stopped taking anticonvulsant medication, and has led an active life over the past 50 years. Reference is made to the experiences of Sherrington, Cushing, and Penfield with cortical stimulation in the awake patient under regional anesthesia as an effective aid to surgery for epileptogenic lesions, tumors, and vascular malformations. Their technique allows for maximal resection with minimal neurological deficits. Over the past 20 years, this approach has been adopted effectively in many neurosurgical centers.

Epilepsy surgery: historical highlights 1909-2009.

This review focuses on some historical highlights of the surgery of epilepsy, beginning with the reports of Horsley, Krause, and Cushing to which appeared in 1909, the year that The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) was inaugurated. We then outline key contributions from Europe and North America, and examine particularly the evolution of our understanding of temporal lobe seizures, which have now become the most common form of epilepsy amenable to surgical cure.

From lateral to mesial: the quest for a surgical cure for temporal lobe epilepsy.

PURPOSE: A gap of more than a hundred years occurred between the first accounts of mesial temporal sclerosis and recognition of its role in the pathogenesis of psychomotor seizures. This paper reviews how the understanding and surgical treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy developed, particularly from the work of Penfield, Jasper, and their associates at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI). METHODS: Publications on EEG and surgery for temporal lobe seizures from 1935 to 1953 were reviewed and charts of selected patients operated on at the MNI in the same period were examined. Attention was focused on the evolution of surgical techniques for temporal lobe epilepsy. RESULTS: In the late 1930s, some EEG findings suggested deep-lying disturbances originating in the temporal lobe. However, it took another two decades before the correlation of clinical, neurophysiological, and anatomical findings provided evidence for the involvement of the mesial structures in psychomotor or temporal lobe seizures. From 1949 and onward, Penfield and his associates applied this evidence to extend the surgical resections to include the uncus and the hippocampus. CONCLUSION: The collaborative work of a team led by Penfield and Jasper at the MNI helped to define the role of neurophysiological studies in epilepsy surgery. As a result, the importance of removing the mesial structures in order to obtain better seizure control in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy became firmly established.

The physiologist and the neurosurgeon: the enduring influence of Charles Sherrington on the career of Wilder Penfield.

Wilder Penfield, a Rhodes scholar from Princeton University, New Jersey, was a student in the first course on mammalian physiology given in 1915 at Oxford University by Charles Sherrington, newly arrived from Liverpool where, as Holt Professor of Physiology for 20 years, he had become a leading authority on the physiology of the nervous system. The practical 'exercises' as well as graduate research on the Golgi apparatus and the decerebrate preparation, carried out by Penfield in Sherrington's laboratory, gave him the groundwork to develop his career as a physiological surgeon, who made fundamental observations on functional localization in the human brain during the surgical treatment of patients afflicted with epilepsy.

The first case of invasive EEG monitoring for the surgical treatment of epilepsy: historical significance and context.

PURPOSE: Controversy persists about when EEG became a fundamental tool in the preoperative investigation for epilepsy surgery. We revisit Penfield's first use of invasive EEG monitoring, emphasizing its historical importance for the evolution of epilepsy surgery. METHODS: Patients' hospital charts and articles published before 1940 regarding EEG and epilepsy or EEG and cerebral lesions were reviewed to evaluate the historical context of the surgery. RESULTS: In April 1939, Penfield performed trephination over both temporal regions and placed electrodes on the dura, intending to lateralize seizure origin in a patient with bitemporal epilepsy. The patient underwent serial EEGs with this technique. The final report of the recordings from epidural leads was "continued random delta activity in the left temporal region indicating a cortical lesion on this side." The pneumoencephalogram showed "the presence of diffuse cerebral atrophy, particularly in the left cerebral hemisphere." Based on these findings, the patient underwent surgery on April 21, revealing a meningocerebral scar in the posterior part of the left temporal lobe. Brain stimulation and electrocorticography delineated the extent of resection, while preserving the speech area. Seizures did not improve. CONCLUSIONS: We revisit the first case of epidural EEG monitoring for epilepsy surgery and show that the concept of EEG-directed surgery was already present at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the late 1930s.

William Osler at Mcgill University: the Baby Professor and his early contributions to neurosurgery.

Between 1870 and 1884, as both a medical student and a member of the faculty, Sir William Osler performed approximately 1000 postmortem examinations at McGill University in Montreal. He conducted 786 of these examinations during his 7 years (1877--1884) of service as a pathologist at the Montreal General Hospital. The results of these were carefully recorded and catalogued either by him or by those who compiled the Pathological Report of the Hospital. Included in this material are many early descriptions of neurosurgical disease. Osler used this information for subsequent teaching in both Philadelphia and Baltimore. Osler's early and lifelong special interest in diseases of the nervous system not only led him to make seminal observations but also served to initiate his influence and relationships with the emerging leaders in neurology and neurosurgery.

Osler and the "medico-chirurgical neurologists": Horsley, Cushing, and Penfield.

Sir Victor Horsley's lecture "On the Technique of Operations on the Central Nervous System," delivered in Toronto in 1906, set the stage for an appraisal of Sir William Osler as a protagonist for the emerging specialty of neurosurgery. During his time at McGill University from 1871 to 1884, Osler performed more than 1000 autopsies. Hispathological reports covered the topics of cerebral aneurysm, apoplectic hemorrhage, vascular infarction, subdural hematoma, meningitis, multiple sclerosis, cerebral abscess, and brain tumor. He wrote about cerebral localization and anatomy and the relationships between the morphological characteristics of the brain and intelligence and criminality. During his continuing career at Philadelphia and Baltimore, Osler published widely on problems in clinical neurology, including monographs on cerebral palsies and chorea as well as chapters on disorders of the nervous system in the first five editions of his popular textbook, The Principles and Practice of Medicine. He became familiar with many of the outstanding figures in medical neurology of his time. Regarding neurosurgery, Osler commended the pioneer operation for a brain tumor in 1884 by Rickman Godlee and the surgery for epilepsy in 1886 by Horsley. In 1907, in discussing the state of brain surgery as reviewed by Horsley, William Macewen, and others, Osler made a plea for "medico-chirurgical neurologists, properly trained in the anatomical, physiological, clinical and surgical aspects of the subject." He played a significant role as a referring physician, mentor, and friend to his young colleague Harvey Cushing (later to become Osler's Boswell), who was breaking new ground in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Beyond that Osler became an inspiring hero figure for his Oxford student Wilder Penfield, who a few decades later would establish a neurological institute at McGill University where medico-chirurgical neurology would flourish.

Theodore Brown Rasmussen (1910-2002): epilepsy surgeon, scientist, and teacher.

Theodore Brown Rasmussen succeeded Wilder Penfield as director of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and held this post from 1960 to 1972. During his career, Rasmussen probably performed more operations for epilepsy than any other surgeon of his time; he became the foremost authority in this field. His meticulous follow-up analyses of the MNI seizure series provided substantial evidence for the success of surgery in the treatment of focal epilepsy. In addition, he made significant contributions to surgery of the pituitary gland for control of cancer, treatment of cerebral and spinal tumors, application of the intracarotid Amytal test for lateralization of speech and memory function, and characterization and treatment of epilepsy accompanied by chronic encephalitis, now referred to as Rasmussen syndrome. His painstaking attention to surgical details as well as his insistence on close monitoring of patient care and critical scrutiny of clinical results marked him as an outstanding teacher and role model for young neurosurgeons and neuroscientists.

Harvey Cushing's Canadian connections.

During his surgical career between 1896 and 1934, Harvey Cushing made eight visits to Canada. He had a broad impact on Canadian medicine and neurosurgery. Cushing's students Wilder Penfield and Kenneth McKenzie became outstanding leaders of the two major centers in Canada for neurosurgical treatment and training. On his first trip to Canada, shortly after completing his surgical internship in August 1896, Cushing traveled with members of his family through the Maritime Provinces and visited hospitals in Quebec and Montreal. Eight years later, in February 1904, as a successful young neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he reported to the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society on his surgical experience in 20 cases of removal of the trigeminal ganglion for neuralgia. In 1922, as the Charles Mickle Lecturer at the University of Toronto, Cushing assigned his honorarium of $1000 to support a neurosurgical fellowship at Harvard. This was awarded to McKenzie, then a general practitioner, for a year's training with Cushing in 1922-1923. McKenzie returned to initiate the neurosurgical services at the Toronto General Hospital, where he developed into a master surgeon and teacher. On Cushing's second visit to McGill University in October 1922, he and Sir Charles Sherrington inaugurated the new Biology Building of McGill's Medical School, marking the first stage of a Rockefeller-McGill program of modernization. In May 1929, Cushing attended the dedication of the Osler Library at McGill. In September 1934, responding to the invitation of Penfield, Cushing presented a Foundation Lecture-one of his finest addresses on the philosophy of neurosurgery-at the opening of the Montreal Neurological Institute. On that same trip, Cushing's revisit to McGill's Osler Library convinced him to turn over his own treasure of historical books to Yale University.